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1 


JOHN  RIGGS   MURDOCK. 


A  Biographical  Sketch 


OF  \ 

i 


John  Riggs  Murdock 


f 


By 

J.  M.  TANNER 


THE  DESERET  NEWS 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 

1909 


:::^ai.  orof  t  Library 


Foreword. 


The  early  history  of  the  Church  is  made  up 
largely  of  the  strenuous  and  often  unexampled 
efforts  of  the  men  and  women  whose  heroic 
toils,  sufferings,  patience,  and  faith  gave  to  the 
new  movement  a  greatness  and  glory  that  in- 
crease as  time  goes  on.  Individual  experiences, 
therefore,  enriched  that  early  history  and  give 
us  a  deeper  insight  into  the  real  characters  of 
the  men  and  women  whose  devotion  and  con- 
stancy are  as  inspiring  as  they  are  interest- 
ing. 

Among  those  who  dedicated  to  the  Church 
and  its  cause  their  best  efforts,  efforts  of  in- 
tense patriotism,  and  whose  endurance  was  the 
crowning  glory  of  those  times,  the  name  of 
John  R.  Murdock  plays  an  important  part. 
Had  others  not  drawn  out  from  him  the  story 
of  his  life,  its  inspiration  and  its  example 
would  have  been  lost  to  the  world.  When  the 
manuscript  prepared  from  facts  given  by  him 
was  read  for  his  approval  his  only  remark 
was :  "They  have  made  quite  a  man  of  me.'' 


iv  FOREWORD 

He  made  himself,  but  the  value  of  his  life  to 
others  he  had  perhaps  never  realized.  When 
asked  how  many  books  he  wanted,  his  reply 
was  an  edition  just  enough  for  his  family. 

Certain  that  the  book  would  find  interest  and 
value  beyond  the  confines  of  his  home  and  rela- 
tions, a  larger  edition  is  published.  The  story 
of  his  life  is  one  which  all  who  would  emulate 
his  integrity  and  his  example  may  desire  to 
read. 

The  Author. 


Index. 

PAGE. 

Infancy  on  the  Frontiers 1 

Childhood   in   Missouri 15 

Boyhood  in   Illinois 42 

In  the  Mormon  Battalion 74 

Pioneer  in  Salt  Lake  Valley 92 

Early   Life  in   Lehi 108 

Life  on  the  Plains 130 

Life  in  Beaver 154 

The  Evening  of  Life 178 

Character   Sketch 193 


John  Riggs  Murdock 


CHAPTER  I 

INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS 

John  Riggs  Murdock  was  born  on  the  13th 
of  September,  1826.  The  date  of  his  birth 
places  his  advent  into  the  world  on  the  thresh- 
old of  a  new  dispensation.  It  was  not  only 
the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  the  expansion  of  his 
native  country,  but  it  was  at  the  beginning  of 
a  new  era  in  the  development  of  science,  art, 
and  invention.  A  new  earth  and  a  new  heaven 
were  just  ushering  in  upon  the  human  family. 
That  year  in  the  world's  history  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  life  and  he  was  born,  therefore, 
into  the  coming  opportunities  that  were  await- 
ing men  of  pronounced  character  and  unyield- 
ing faith.  The  opportunities  of  his  environ- 
ments were  perhaps  not  so  important  in  his  fa- 
vor as  the  circumstances  of  his  birth. 
I 


2  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

His  father;  John  Murdock,  was  one  of  those 
pioneers  of  New  England  descent  who  had 
the  courage  and  the  hope  to  brave  the  unde- 
veloped regions  of  the  West.  He  had,  there- 
fore, transmitted  to  his  son  those  peculiar  qual- 
ities of  life  which  make  of  men  sturdy  and 
courageous  pioneers.  The  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Julia  Clapp,  was  a  daughter 
of  Judge  Horace  Clapp  of  Mentor,  Ohio,  who, 
in  turn,  was  a  son  of  Abner  Clapp,  a  captain 
in  the  colonial  army  during  the  Revolutionary 
War.  Abner  was  himself  a  direct  descendant  of 
Captain  Roger  Clapp,  who  came  over  from 
England  in  1630  in  the  ship  Mary  and  John, 
and  was  captain  of  Fort  Independence  in  Bos- 
ton Harbor  for  twenty-one  years.  Such  par- 
entage gave  to  the  boy  a  rich  inheritance  that 
marked  his  life  covering  a  long  period  of  ser- 
vice both  in  the  church  and  state. 

Another  circumstance  which  seemed  effica- 
cious in  transmitting  to  the  son  the  courage 
and  independence  of  religious  convictions  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  father  and  mother 
were  members  of  the  Campbellite  Church. 
These  followers  of  Alexander  Campbell,  who 
was  a  bold  and  adroit  leader,  had  been  taught 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  3 

to  rest  their  convictions  upon  the  reformation 
of  those  times — a  reformation  which  brought 
men  back  to  a  plain  and  literal  interpretation 
of  Holy  Writ.  Whatever,  therefore,  might  be- 
fall the  young  boy  in  after  life,  however  mea- 
gre  the  chances  of  a  public  school  education,  he 
was  certainly  equipped  by  the  circumstances  of 
his  birth  and  a  rich  inheritance  to  take  a  front 
place  in  the  ranks  and  in  the  deliberations  of 
his  fellow  men. 

In  the  midst  of  this  religious  awakening  in 
northeastern  Ohio,  a  religious  movement  of 
greater  import  and  of  divine  purpose  was  tak- 
ing place  in  western  New  York,  where  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith  was  the  recipient  of 
heavenly  revelations  announcing  the  advent  of 
a  new  dispensation  in  the  world's  history. 
There  were  in  that  region  of  the  country, 
between  Canandaigoa  and  Colesville,about  sev- 
enty members  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints.  To  them  had  been  com- 
mitted the  Book  of  Mormon  and  with  it  the 
duty  of  making  the  new  message  known  to 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth.  The  missionary 
spirit  was  upon  them,  and  in  the  year  1830  a 
revelation  was  given  requiring  Oliver  Cow- 


4  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

dery,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  Ziba  Peterson,  and  Peter 
Whitmer,  Jr.  to  visit  the  Lamanites,  or  Indians 
of  the  West,  and  make  known  to  them  the 
story  of  their  forefathers.  As  these  men  set 
out  on  their  westward  journey,  they  soon 
reached  the  district  of  country  about  Kirtland. 
Here  Parley  P.  Pratt  met  his  old  friend  and 
teacher,  Sidney  Rigdon,  of  the  Reformed  Bap- 
tists Society. 

The  testimony  of  these  elders  and  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Book  of  Mormon  awakened  in- 
tense feelings  and  interest  among  the  Camp- 
bellites,  who  were  in  a  frame  of  mind  and  a 
condition  of  spirit  to  receive  the  new  message. 
Speaking  of  those  times  Parley  P.  Pratt,  in  his 
autobiography,  says :  "The  interest  and  excite- 
ment now  became  general  in  Kirtland  and  in 
all  the  region  round  about.  The  people 
thronged  day  and  night,  in  so  much  that  we 
had  no  time  for  rest  or  retirement." 

"In  two  or  three  weeks  from  our  arrival  in 
the  neighborhood  with  the  news,  we  had  bap- 
tized one  hundred  and  tv/enty  souls  and  this 
number  soon  increased  to  one  thousand.  The 
disciples  were  filled  with  joy  and  gladness; 
while  rage  and  lying  were  abundantly  mani- 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  5 

fested  by  gainsayers;  faith  was  strong,  joy 
was  great,  and  persecution  heavy.  We  pro- 
ceeded to  ordain  Sidney  Rigdon,  Isaac  Morley, 
John  Murdock,  Lyman  Wight  to  the  ministry ; 
and,  leaving  them  to  take  care  of  the  Church 
and  minister  the  gospel,  we  took  leave  of  the 
Saints  and  continued  our  journey." 

The  boy  John  Riggs  at  this  time  was  only 
four  years  of  age.  From  his  earliest  recollec- 
tion he  was  brought  up  amid  scenes  of  conflict, 
and  in  the  society  of  courageous  and  faithful 
men.  Such  a  training  as  befell  him,  therefore, 
in  his  youth  was,  really,  one  of  rare  opportu- 
nity. As  the  development  of  a  manly  char- 
acter is,  after  all,  one  of  the  first  aims  of  edu- 
cation, the  boy's  schooling  in  a  new  and  won- 
derful life  was  perhaps  after  all  of  greater 
value  and  consequence  to  him  in  his  pioneer 
work  than  the  text-book  of  a  schoolroom  could 
ever  have  given. 

Sidney  Rigdon  was  anxious  to  meet  the 
Prophet,  and  therefore  at  his  earliest  oppor- 
tunity set  out  for  Fayette,  New  York,  where 
he  and  Joseph  Smith  first  became  associated 
in  the  early  experiences  of  the  Church.  Nor 
was  it  a  matter  of  small  moment  to  the  boy 


6  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

and  his  environments  that  his  father  was -in 
those  early  days  numbered  with  such  men  as 
Rigdon,  Morley,  Wight,  and  Partridge.  "Tell 
me/'  says  the  old  adage,  "what  a  man's  as- 
sociations are,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  he  is/' 

Soon  after  this  a  revelation  was  given  re- 
quiring the  Saints  in  New  York  to  gather  in 
Ohio.  This  was  the  first  revelation  on  gath- 
ering in  this  dispensation.  This  divine  re- 
quirement brought  the  Saints  in  the  spring  of 
1831  to  Kirtland,  where  the  Saints  were  re- 
quired to  receive  the  new  brethren  from  the 
East  and  to  divide  their  lands  with  them,  "un- 
til the  Lord  should  command  them  to  gather 
in  the  land  of  their  inheritance."  This  new 
move  established  the  Church  in  that  region  of 
Ohio,  where  John  Murdock  and  his  son  lived. 

The  elder  Murdock  was  in  those  days  also 
closely  associated  with  Parley  P.  Pratt.  In 
their  missionary  labors  there  were  peculiar 
spiritual  manifestations  which  troubled  these 
elders,  and  in  the  absence  of  their  Prophet 
they  felt  somewhat  dismayed  and  in  need  of 
his  guidance.  It  was  a  remarkable  priv- 
ilege given  to  man  to  take  part  with  the  Proph- 
et and  with  the  elders  whom  God  had  raised 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  7 

up  as  companions  for  him.  Such  a  privilege 
was  accorded  to  John  Murdock.  In  his  auto- 
biography Parley  P.  Pratt,  speaking  of  those 
times,  says:  ''Feeling  our  weakness  and  inex- 
perience, and  lest  we  should  err  in  judgment 
concerning  this  spiritual  phenomenon,  myself, 
John  Murdock,  and  several  other  elders  went 
to  Joseph  Smith  and  asked  him  to  inquire  of 
the  Lord  concerning  these  spirits  or  manifes- 
tations. Here,  in  Kirtland,  in  the  Prophet's 
translating  room,  Joseph  Smith  dictated,  in 
their  presence  a  revelation.  Elder  Pratt,  de- 
scribing the  revelation,  says :  "Each  sentence 
was  uttered  slowly  and  very  distinctly,  and 
with  a  pause  between  each  sufficiently  long 
for  it  to  be  recorded  by  an  ordinary  writer  in 
long  hand.  This  was  the  manner  in  which 
all  his  revelations  were  dictated  and  written. 
There  was  never  any  hesitation,  reviewing,  or 
reading  back  in  order  to  keep  the  run  of  the 
subject.'' 

The  atmosphere  of  such  divine  manifesta- 
tion and  such  revelations  was  an  atmosphere 
in  which  the  father  lived  and  whose  influence 
must  have  been  his  guiding  star.  Having  a 
father  thus  favored,there  must  have  been  awak- 


8  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

ened  in  the  heart  of  the  boy  a  confidence  that 
could  not  easily  be  shaken ;  and  those  who  know 
John  Riggs  Murdock  will  be  quick  to  ascribe 
that  unyielding  faith  and  devotion  in  his  life 
in  some  degree  at  least  to  the  atmosphere  from 
which  he  received  his  earliest  religious  con- 
victions. 

If  there  were  strong  influences  and  great 
men  carrying  John  Murdock  along  in  the 
course  of  his  new-born  faith,  there  were  also 
counteracting  influences  which  compelled  him 
to  take  an  attitude  of  firmness  and  maintain 
the  God-given  testimony  that  meant  to  him  a 
new  life  and  a  great  sacrifice.  His  wife,  Julia 
Clapp,  was  related  to  Alexander  Campbell  by 
marriage,  her  sister  having  married  a  brother 
of  this  able  religious  leader.  Nor  was  oppo- 
sition the  only  trial  that  beset  him  in  those 
days.  To  him  and  his  wife  were  born  five 
children,  Orrice  Clapp,  John  Riggs,  and  Phoebe 
Clapp,  besides  the  historical  twin  babies,  Julia 
and  Joseph.  Upon  the  birth  of  the  last-named 
two,  the  mother  died,  leaving  the  care  of  her 
five  children  to  neighbors  and  friends.  This 
happened  in  the  month  of  April,  1831,  before 
John  Riggs  Murdock  had   reached  his  fifth 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  9 

year.  Speaking  of  those  times  in  later  years 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  said :  *Tresh  in  my 
memory  is  the  death  of  my  dear  mother, 
which  occurred  in  Warrensville  township, 
which  joins  Orange  township.  There  was  a 
dreadfully  sad  scene  among  her  poor  children 
following  her  death.  It  was  simply  heart- 
rending to  hear  little  sister  Phoebe,  only  two 
years  old,  cry  out  for  her  mother  as  if  her 
little  heart  would  break.  We  were  staying  at 
a  neighbor's  when  father  came  and  told  us  the 
sad  news.  He  wept  most  bitterly;  for  he  re- 
alized all  the  sorrow  of  the  situation.'' 

The  same  day  that  Julia  Murdock  gave  birth 
to  her  twin  children,  a  similar  occurrence  took 
place  in  the  family  of  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith.  Nine  days  later  the  Prophet's  wife, 
Emma,  to  assuage  her  grief  over  the  loss  of 
her  twin  children,  and  to  respond  to  a  heart- 
felt sympathy  for  the  unfortunate  little  ones  in 
the  Murdock  family,  took  these  twins,  Joseph 
and  Julia.  About  the  time  the  little  ones  were 
eleven  months  old,  the  Prophet  moved  from 
Kirtland  to  a  nearby  town  called  Hiram, 
where  he  lived  in  the  family  of  Father  John- 
son. 


10  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

In  consequence  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
Mormon  people  in  that  section  of  the  country, 
and  the  large  number  of  converts  made  from 
the  Campbellite  Church,  persecution  grew  in- 
tense. Apostates  sought  justification  in  the 
humiliation  of  those  whose  teachings  and 
authority  they  later  came  to  despise.  An  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  the  twin  Joseph  and  the 
circumstances  leading  to  it  is  given  by  the 
Prophet  Joseph  in  his  biography  of  March  24, 
1832:  "The  twins  before  mentioned,  which 
had  been  sick  of  the  measles  for  some  time, 
caused  us  to  be  broken  of  our  rest  in  taking 
care  of  them,  especially  my  wife.  In  the  eve- 
ning I  told  her  she  had  better  retire  with  one 
of  the  children,  and  I  would  watch  with  the 
sicker  child.  In  the  night  she  told  me  I  had 
better  lie  down  on  the  trundle  bed,  and  I  did 
so,  and  was  soon  after  awakened  by  her 
screaming,  'murder!'  when  I  found  myself 
going  out  of  the  door  in  the  hands  of  about 
a  dozen  men,  some  of  whose  hands  were  in 
my  hair,  and  some  had  hold  of  my  shirt,  draw- 
ers, and  limbs.  *  *  *  During  the  mob- 
bing one  of  the  twins,  Joseph,  contracted  a  se- 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  11 

vere  cold  and  continued  to  grow  worse  until 
Friday,  and  then  died."  This  was  March  22, 
1832.  In  one  day  more  the  children  would 
have  been  eleven  months  old.  Julia,  the  other 
twin,  continued  to  live  in  the  Prophet's  fam- 
ily until  she  married. 

About  this  time  there  began  in  pursuance 
of  revelation  a  move  of  the  Staints  from  Kirt- 
land  and  neighborhood  to  the  land  of  Zion  in 
Missouri.  For  five  years  after  the  death  of 
the  mother  of  John  Riggs  Murdock,  his  father 
devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
and  the  children  were  placed  in  the  care  of 
friends.  When  this  boy  was  six  years  of  age, 
he,  with  his  brother  Orrice  and  sister  Phoebe, 
were  placed  in  the  keeping  of  Caleb  Baldwin, 
who  left  Ohio  in  1832  to  settle  with  the  Saints 
in  Independence,  Missouri. 

They  were  little  children  to  undertake  such 
a  journey  and  under  such  circumstances  of 
privation  and  hardship.  The  second  boy,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  was  then  already  old 
enough  to  sense  in  some  measure  the  change 
in  his  surorundings  and  the  new  life  he  was  to 
take  on  thereafter.     It  cannot  be  said,  how- 


12  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

ever,  that  he  lacked  love  and  friendship  and 
the  tender  care  which  springs  from  them. 

The  Saints  in  those  days  were  subject  to  per- 
secution. Their  sympathies,  therefore,  were 
awakened  by  every  misfortune  and  suffering 
that  came  to  their  fellow  men,  and  especially 
those  of  their  own  faith;  besides,  the  father 
of  these  Murdock  children  was  devoting  him- 
self to  the  ministry.  His  devotion,  therefore, 
to  the  cause  of  God  and  the  sacrifice  which  it 
entails  in  separating  him'  from  his  little  ones, 
would  naturally  beget  a  heartfelt  interest  in 
their  behalf.  Caleb  Baldwin,  the  man  to 
whose  tender  mercies  they  had  been  entrusted, 
was  himself  in  years  to  come  to  undergo  tribu- 
lations. Indeed,  he  must  have  felt  during  those 
days  of  travel  between  Kirtland  and  Independ- 
ence a  solicitous  welfare  for  the  little  charges 
entrusted  to  his  keeping. 

When  the  children  reached  their  destination 
in  Missouri,  they  were  separated — a  circum- 
stance indeed  trying  to  a  childish  love  for  lit- 
tle brothers  and  sisters.  Little  Phoebe,  a  help- 
less child  at  that  time,  was  given  over  to  the 
care  of  Sidney  Gilbert  and  wife.     Having  no 


INFANCY  ON  THE  FRONTIERS  13 

children  of  their  own,  and  loving  little  ones, 
they  bestowed  an  abundance  of  love  and  care 
on  little  Phoebe.  She  lived,  however,  to  be  only 
six  years  old,  having  died  of  the  cholera  at  the 
same  time  Sidney  Gilbert  and  several  members 
of  Zion's  Camp  fell  victims  of  that  dread  dis- 
ease. The  boy,  John  Riggs,  a  little  older  than 
his  departed  sister,  carried  the  memories  of  a 
childish  love  and  devotion  and  was  wont  in 
after  years  to  declare:  ''Truly,  she  was  a 
lovely  child !"  The  oldest  boy,  Orrice,  passed 
on  to  the  keeping  of  different  ones.  As  those 
days  were  full  of  trouble,  and  men's  circum- 
stances changed  so  often  and  so  radically 
they  could  not  continue  their  guardianship 
over  him. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  came  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Presiding  Bishop  of  the 
Church  in  those  days,  Edward  Partridge,  who 
gave  him'  over  to  Morris  C.  Phelps,  who  had  at 
that  time  no  little  ones.  Thus  began  the  life 
of  John  Riggs  Murdock  on  the  outposts  of  civ- 
ilization. It  was  a  life  in  Jackson  County, 
where  he  was  old  enough  to  witness  the  sav- 
age persecutions  of  his  benefactors  and  of  his 
people.     The  impressions  made    during    that 


14  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

time  upon  a  mind  so  young  can  scarcely  be 
comprehended  by  those  whose  peaceful  sur- 
roundings are  so  happyfying,  and  whose  com- 
forts relieve  the  childish  mind  of  all  fear  and 
forebodings. 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  15 

CHAPTER  II 

CHILDHOOD   IN   MISSOURI 

The  childhood  of  John  Riggs  Murdock  in 
Missouri,  during  those  awful  days  of  bitter 
persecution,  must  have  been  one  of  constant 
and  intense  anxiety.  He  was  too  young  then 
— for  he  was  only  six  years  old  when  he 
reached  Independence,  Jackson  county^ — to 
feel  the  supporting  influence  which  comes  to 
those  who  understand  in  some  measure  God's 
purpose  in  persecution,  and  who  have  the  ex- 
perience of  faith  and  an  understanding  suffi- 
cient to  comprehend  a  situation  even  though 
it  be  full  of  distress.  This  boy  would  naturally 
cling  with  fear  and  anxiety  to  those  in  whom 
he  trusted.  To  him  the  situation  was  full  of 
bewilderment,  he  could  not  comprehend  the  ar- 
guments that  were  carried  on  between  the  en- 
emies and  the  Saints,  and  in  their  contentions 
he  could  only  know  that  there  was  for  some 
reason  a  murderous  intent  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who  were  persecuting  his  people  and  his 
guardians. 


16  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

The  western  Missourians  of  those  days  were 
Southerners.  The  blighting  influence  of  slav- 
ery was  an  object  lesson  to  the  Saints,  who, 
by  their  industry  in  reclaiming  the  prairie 
lands,  stood  out  in  striking  contrast  with  their 
Southern  neighbors.  Those  were  days  when 
slave-holders  had  staked  their  all  on  the  tri- 
umph and  supremacy  of  their  cherished  insti- 
tution of  negro  servitude.  Politics,  therefore, 
in  those  frontier  territories  took  on  a  deadly 
aspect  that  perhaps  has  never  had  an  equal  in 
the  history  of  our  country.  The  political  pow- 
er of  the  Mormons  was  to  the  enemy  a  subject 
of  grave  fears,  and  the  struggle  to  thwart  that 
coming  power,  as  they  viewed  it,  became  to 
them  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  The  Mor- 
mons must  leave  Jackson  county. 

The  Phelps  family,  in  which  the  boy  lived, 
by  reason  of  its  prominence,  became  one  of  the 
shining  marks  against  whom  the  murderous 
assaults  of  those  Mormon  haters  were  directed. 
There  were  constant  gatherings  of  the  mobs 
to  intimidate  the  Saints  and  to  enforce  their 
removal  from  Jackson  county.  Sometimes 
these  mobs  and  bodies  of  the  Saints  came 
into  open  conflict,  but  the  Saints  were  in  the 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  17 

minority,  and  their  opposition  only  served  as 
an  excuse  to  perpetrate  upon  them  the  inhu- 
man outrages  that  characterized  their  driving 
from  the  confines  of  Jackson  county  across 
the  Missouri  River  north  into  Clay  county. 

A  picture  of  those  days,  the  fifth  and  sixth  of 
November,  1832,  scenes  to  which  John  Riggs 
Murdock  was  in  a  large  measure  an  eye-wit- 
ness, has  been  painted,  in  the  Times  and  Sea- 
sons, and  in  the  biography  of  the  Prophet 
Joseph.  Those  scenes  are  here  given  at  some 
length  because,  though  the  history  of  different 
communities,  they  are  nevertheless  stirring  in- 
cidents that  came  within  the  childhood  experi- 
ence of  John  Riggs  Murdock : 

"All  through  this  day  and  the  day  follow- 
ing (November  6th)  women  and  children  w^ere 
fleeing  in  every  direction  from  the  presence  of 
the  merciless  mob.  One  company  of  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety — all  women  and  children,  ex- 
cept three  decrepit  men — were  driven  thirty 
miles  across  a  burnt  prairie,  the  ground  thinly 
crusted  with  sleet,  their  trail  being  easily  fol- 
lowed by  the  blood  which  flowed  from  their 
lacerated  feet. 

"Other  parties  during  the  two  days  men- 
2 


18  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

tioned  flocked  to  the  Missouri  River,  and 
crossed  at  the  ferries  into  Clay  county.  One 
of  the  companies  of  the  distressed  women  and 
children  were  kindly  lodged  by  a  Mr.  Bennett 
for  the  night  in  his  house." 

If  you  would  see  that  boy  on  the  banks  of  the 
Missouri  River  on  the  7th  day  of  November, 
1833,  read  the  scene  as  portrayed  by  the 
prophet : 

*'The  shore  began  to  be  lined  on  both  sides 
of  the  ferry  with  men,  women  and  children, 
goods,  wagons,  boxes,  chests,  provisions,  etc., 
while  the  ferrymen  were  busily  employed  in 
crossing  them  over;  and  when  night  again 
closed  upon  the  Saints  the  wilderness  had  much 
the  appearance  of  a  camp  meeting.  Hundreds 
of  people  were  seen  in  every  direction;  some 
in  tents  and  some  in  the  open  air,  around  their 
fires,  while  the  rain  descended  in  torrents. 
Husbands  were  inquiring  for  their  wives ;  and 
women  for  their  husbands;  parents  for  chil- 
dren ;  and  children  for  parents.  Some  had  the 
good  fotune  to  escape  with  their  family,  house- 
hold goods  and  some  provisions;  while  others 
knew  not  of  the  fate  of  their  loved  ones  and 
had  lost  all  their  goods.     The  scene  was  in- 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  19 

describable,  and  would  have  melted  the  hearts 
of  any  people  upon  the  earth,  except  the  blind 
oppressor,  and  prejudiced  and  ignorant  bigot. 
Next  day  the  company  increased,  and  they 
were  chiefly  engaged  in  felling  small  cotton- 
wood  trees  and  erecting  them  into  temporary 
cabins,  so  that  when  night  came  on  they  had 
the  appearance  of  a  village  of  wig\vams,  and 
the  night  being  clear,  the  occupants  began  to 
enjoy  some  degree  of  comfort.  " 

The  Evening  and  Morning  Star  contains  the 
following  description  of  a  meteoric  phenome- 
non which  gave  encouragement  to  the  dis- 
tressed Saints,  and  for  the  moment  created 
some  dismay  among  their  enemies : 

"On  the  night  of  the  13th  of  November, 
while  large  bodies  of  the  Saints  were  still  in 
Camp  on  the  Missouri  bottoms,  exiled  from 
their  homes  for  the  gospel's  sake,  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  meteoric  showers  occurred 
that  was  ever  witnessed.  The  whole  heavens 
and  the  earth  were  made  brilliant  by  the 
streams  of  light  which  marked  the  course  of 
the  falling  aerolites.  The  whole  upper  deep 
was  one  vast  display  of  heaven's  fireworks. 
The  long  trains  of  light  left  in  the  heavens  by 


20  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

the  meteors  would  twist  into  the  most  fantastic 
shapes,  like  writhing  serpents.  Its  grandeur 
was  far  beyond  the  power  of  words  to  describe. 

"It  is  needless  to  say,  then,  that  this  sign  in 
the  heavens  encouraged  the  distressed  Saints; 
that  it  revived  their  hopes ;  that  it  calmed  their 
fears;  that  the  coming  of  their  deliverer  was 
drawing  nigh.  Nor  need  I  say  that  it  awed 
the  mob,  and  made  a  pause  in  their  cruel  pro- 
ceedings for  a  season.  But  that  pause  was 
brief;  for  on  the  twenty-third  of  November 
the  mob  held  a  meeting,  and  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  warn  any  of  the  Saints  who  might 
possibly  be  found  within  the  borders  of  the 
county,  to  leave." 

Of  this  remarkable  manifestation,  John  R. 
Murdock  says :  "The  stars  fell  in  countless 
numbers;  and  were  as  vivid  and  real  to  my 
eye  as  are  the  immense  hail  stones  or  snow 
flakes  that  may  fall  in  an  ordinary  storm." 

The  boy  found  himself  north  of  the  Mis- 
souri River,  in  Clay  county,  when  only  seven 
years  of  age,  dependent  upon  foster  parents 
who  in  turn  were  largely  dependent  upon  the 
hospitality  of  those  whose  pity  had  been  reach- 
ed by  the  inhuman  treatment  which  had  over- 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  21 

taken  the  Saints  in  Jackson  county.  When  it 
is  remembered  that  at  this  time  the  Saints  were 
poor;  that  what  Httle  they  had  in  Jackson 
county  had  been  destroyed,  we  can  well  im- 
agine the  touching  poverty  that  existed  in 
their  midst.  The  poverty  was  so  great  that 
even  though  the  pride  of  the  boy  was  not 
touched  by  its  existence,  he  must  have  felt  it 
keenly  in  the  want  of  the  ordinary  necessities 
of  life,  as  food  would  be  scant  and  his  raiment 
poor.  At  his  age  of  life,  too,  he  would  be 
deeply  sensitive  to  his  unfavorable  and  uncer- 
tain surroundings. 

Here,  too,  in  the  life  of  John  R.  Murdock, 
from  the  period  of  seven  to  nine  years  of  age, 
was  indelibly  impressed  upon  his  soul  that  in- 
tense and  abiding  faith  in  the  rightfulness  of 
the  Saints  to  the  land  of  their  inheritance,  of 
Jackson  county,  which  to  him  was  the  land  of 
promise — the  chosen  place  of  the  Lord.  The 
history  of  those  times  recounts  the  tenacity 
with  which  the  Saints  held  to  the  hope  of  their 
Zion.  It  was  not  merely  the  land  they  had 
been  compelled  to  leave,  measured  in  dollars 
and  cents ;  it  was  not  the  houses  burned  from 
over  their  heads ;  it  was  not  the  loss  of  horses 


22  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

and  cattle,  nor  the  destruction  of  their  mov- 
ables upon  which  they  had  centered  their  af- 
fection ;  it  was  upon  a  particular  spot  of  earth 
— the  Zion  of  their  God — the  land  of  prom- 
ise— the  glory  of  days  to  come.  How  could 
they  abandon  it !  It  was  a  part  of  their  faith, 
and  their  eyes  turned  back  to  Jackson  county 
with  a  yearning  of  a  steadfast  purpose  and  an 
unyielding  faith. 

While  the  Saints  generally  had  their  hearts 
set  upon  Jackson  county,  this  boy  was  receiv- 
ing those  early  impressions  of  life  which  are 
written  both  on  and  in  the  human  soul.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  that  all  his  life 
long  there  was  a  sacred  corner  in  the  heart 
of  John  Riggs  Murdock,  where  he  treasured 
up  a  loving  and  abiding  faith  in  the  thought  of 
Jackson  County.  It  was  a  part  of  his  life.  He 
spoke  about  it  from  the  pulpit,  he  referred  to 
it  in  private  conversation,  but  what  he  said 
must  have  been  small  in  comparison  with  his 
thoughts  and  feelings  about  the  c|iosen  Zion 
of  the  Lord. 

The  people  then  had  not  abandoned  their 
hope  of  a  favorable  opportunity  to  return  to 
this  chosen  spot.     That  hope  has  never  been 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  23 

abandoned  by  the  Latter-day  Saints,  even  those 
born  at  times  long  subsequent.  If  in  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Covenant  who  had  never  seen 
Jackson  county  there  is  inborn  hope  for  the 
redemption  of  that  promised  spot  of  earth, 
what  must  be  the  feelings  of  a  man  toward  it 
who,  as  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  from  his 
ealriest  recollections  kept  tenaciously  to  the 
promise  which  had  been  given  him  respecting 
the  Zion  of  his  God.  Perhaps  in  the  decline  of 
life,  when  he  stands  on  the  shores  of  the  great 
hereafter,  no  thought  has  been  more  cher- 
ished by  him  than  that  of  the  ultimate  return 
of  the  Saints  to  Jackson  county. 

He  felt  as  others  of  his  time  felt,  that  when 
he  left  Clay  county  it  would  be  to  drop  back 
again  across  the  Missouri  River  to  receive  the 
land  there  given  the  Saints  as  an  inheritance. 

From  Clay  county  he  went  with  the  Saints 
to  Caldwell.  For  him  in  this  new  county 
there  began  a  new  training.  It  was  the  birth 
of  uncommon  responsibilities  which  were  to 
develop  a  character  for  manhood,  persistency, 
and  industry  that  gave  him  much  of  the  prom- 
inence and  prestige  he  enjoyed  in  after  life 
among  his  fellow  men. 


24  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

During  the  stay  of  John  R.  Murdock  in 
Clay  county,  he  naturally  shared  the  experi- 
ences of  his  fellow  outcasts.  The  hardships 
which  such  a  condition  works  upon  a  boy  are 
usually  greater  than  those  encountered  by  per- 
sons of  mature  years,  who  have  the  physical 
powers  to  withstand  the  cold,  want  of  food 
and  other  trials.  After  he  had  been  baptized 
by  his  father  in  Clay  county,  on  the  14th  day 
of  September,  1834,  the  day  after  he  was  eight 
years  of  age,  he  came  properly  under  the  des- 
ignation of  a  Mormon.  He  was  then  old 
enough  to  sense,  in  some  measure,  the  situa- 
tion, and  feel  the  humiliation  to  which  he  and 
his  older  brethren  had  been  subjected.  In  his 
life,  the  years  of  1835-36-37  and  38,  when  he 
was  nine,  ten,  eleven  and  twelve  years  old, 
experiences  came  to  him  which  had  much  to  do 
with  the  convictions  on  the  important  question 
of  Mormonism'  throughout  all  his  subsequent 
life.  Those  were,  indeed,  rare  experiences  for 
a  boy  who  was  of  his  age,  an  age  in  which 
the  memory  plays  so  important  a  part  and 
impressions  are  so  lasting. 

The  history  of  those  years,  from  the  stand- 
point of  his  youth,  are  worth  here  a  brief  re- 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  25 

capitulation.  He  had  been  an  eye-witness  of  that 
awful  hatred  known  only  in  religious  persecu- 
tion. It  was  a  hatred  both  vile  and  murder- 
ous. As  he  looked  into  the  faces  of  the  men 
who  drove  him  and  his  foster  parents  from 
Jackson  county,  he  must  have  felt  something 
of  the  terror  that  only  such  a  murderous  hatred 
can  forget.  When  he  settled  in  Clay  county  he 
felt  the  sympathy  which  the  people,  who  re- 
ceived the  refugees  bestowed  in  consequence 
of  the  pity  which  they  felt  for  those  unfortu- 
nate exiles.  There  would  naturally  be  awak- 
ened within  the  boy  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude 
for  the  slightest  favor  bestowed,  but  that  grat- 
itude was  not  left  long  undisturbed;  for  the 
shelter  which  he  received  in  Clay  county  was 
only  temporary,  and  he  with  his  people,  was 
first  coldly  invited  to  leave  the  county  and 
later  were  threatened  if  they  tarried  long.  It 
is  not  easy  to  describe  what  a  boy's  conception 
of  a  free  government  was  under  such  circum- 
stances. Then  he  must  have  gradually  awak- 
ened to  the  fact  that  no  government  is  more 
just  than  the  people  who  maintain  it.  How- 
ever, the  people  moved  to  Caldwell  county, 
where  the  broad  prairie  was  considered  in  those 


26  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

days  unfavorable  for  the  purposes  of  settle- 
ment. The  county  was  comparatively  free  from 
inhabitants  and  it  looked  as  though  the  Mor- 
mons might  dwell  there  in  peace  with  them- 
selves. He  had  now  arrived  at  that  age  of  life, 
although  still  young,  where  his  services  could 
be  extensively  utilized.  At  eleven  years  of 
age  he  says  that  he  plowed  and  cultivated  ten 
acres  of  land.  He  also  remembers,  among  the 
early  experiences  of  his  boyhood,  the  fact  that 
he  drove  a  team  at  the  time  the  excavation 
w^as  made  for  the  foundation  of  the  Temple 
in  the  town  of  Far  West. 

There  were  busy  and  stirring  scenes  in  Far 
West  during  the  years  of  1836,  1837  and  1838. 
It  was  the  County  Seat,  the  center  of  the  re- 
ligious and  political  organizations  of  the  peo- 
ple. He  saw  his  father  there  at  the  conference 
of  1837  chosen  the  senior  member  of  the  high 
council,  which  was  organized  for  that  stake  of 
Zion.  With  that  body  of  men  might  be  seen 
a  number  of  strong  characters,  whose  associa- 
tion with  his  father  not  only  had  an  impres- 
sion upon  the  boy,  but  awakened  within  him 
feelings  of  admiration  by  reason  of  what  he 
saw  and  heard.    He  also  learned  at  that  time 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  27 

the  importance  which  the  Church  had  placed 
upon  the  Word  of  Wisdom,  for  by  unanimous 
vote  the  people  agreed  that  they  would  not 
support  any  store  or  shop  which  sold  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  tea,  coffee,  or  tobacco.  The 
leaders  of  the  Church  were  anxious  to  secure 
the  favor  of  the  Lord  by  the  observance  of  his 
requirements.  They  were  anxious  to  fortify 
the  brethren  against  the  practices  which  lead  to 
indulgence  and  disunion. 

The  Church,  however,  was  not  to  escape 
temptation;  and  if  its  members  avoided  one 
snare,  others  were  laid  to  trap  their  unwary 
feet.  There  were  other  temptations  besides 
self-indulgence.  Best  of  opportunities  were 
given  to  gratify  selfishness  in  those  who  felt 
the  inner  temptation. 

Into  Caldwell  and  two  or  three  of  the  other 
adjoining  counties,  the  Saints  were  coming 
from'  Canada  and  Kirtland,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  there  were  some  twelve  thousand 
people  among  the  Saints  in  Missouri.  This 
influx  of  population  naturally  created  a  rise 
in  land  values.  The  old  settlers  could  not  re- 
sist the  temptation  to  speculate  at  the  expense 
of  the  new-comers.     Along  with  this  selfish- 


2S  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

ness  there  developed  among  them  feelings  of 
pride  which  resulted  in  division  and  later  in 
apostasy. 

Here  the  boy  must  have  listened  to  the  con- 
tentions that  were  the  outgrowth  of  strife  and 
rivalry.  He  saw  the  witnesses  to  the  Book  of 
Mormon  fall  by  the  wayside.  He  saw  apos- 
tles undertake  to  bring  trouble  and  calamity 
upon  the  Prophet.  Those  men  who  were  op- 
posing the  counsels  of  the  Prophet  and  violat- 
ing his  instructions,  no  doubt,  had  their  "strong 
arguments/'  Fortunately  for  him  his  father 
and  his  foster  parents,  those  responsible  for  his 
welfare,  did  not  falter.  The  foster  father  of 
his  sister,  Sidney  Gilbert,  had  declared  to  the 
Prophet  in  the  strength  of  his  manhood  that  he 
would  rather  die  than  go  on  a  mission.  Death 
speedily  overtook  the  man  in  the  days  of  the 
cholera  plague.  Those  were  days  that  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  faith  in  John  Riggs  Mur- 
dock  which  served  in  future  life  to  guard  him 
against  the  sophistries  of  men  and  the  dangers 
of  selfish  ambition.  He  had  learned  in  his 
youth,  perhaps  the  most  important  lesson  in 
Mormonism;  namely,  that  there  is  no  safety 
for  men  who  have  not  a  spiritual  guidance 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  29 

stronger  and  surer  than  the  reasons  and  argu- 
ments of  their  fellows.  It  was  in  those  days, 
too,  that  John  R.  Murdock  learned  that  might 
was  not  right.  The  brute  force  which  was  the 
only  superior  power  that  the  Missourians 
could  claim,  stood  out  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  intelligence,  industry,  virtue,and  refinement 
of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  He  also  saw  the  ex- 
cuses which  querulous  men  made  use  of  as  a 
justification  for  their  violence  and  injustice, 
and  he  therefore  throughout  the  remainder  of 
his  life  avoided  those  who  were  given  to  con- 
tention and  strife. 

The  Prophet  Joseph  had  been  in  Far  West 
in  1837  and  had  given  the  people  an  organ- 
ization and  directed  the  work  of  their  colon- 
ization. He  then  returned  to  Kirtland,  to 
look  after  the  Saints  there.  But  the  Prophet 
could  not  travel  fast  enough  between  these  dis- 
tant places  to  subdue  the  contentions  and  en- 
mity which  the  evil  one  created.  In  the  spring 
of  1838  Joseph  felt  that  his  presence  was  need- 
ed more  with  the  Saints  on  the  frontier,  that 
he  must  quit  Kirtland  if  his  life  were  to  be  pre- 
served. He  was  soon  followed  by  the  majority 
of  the  Saints  in  Ohio.    Gathering  was  going  on 


30  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

rapidly  in  Missouri.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1838, 
he  witnessed  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  in 
the  excavation  which  had  been  prepared  the 
year  before  in  Far  West.  The  people  of  Mis- 
souri clearly  foresaw  that  Caldwell  county 
would  not  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  Lat- 
ter-day Saints.  Their  immigration  was  natur- 
ally a  source  of  some  alarm.  They  entertained 
a  fear  of  the  Mormon  people,  whose  increasing 
numbers  they  considered  a  menace  to  their 
power.  They  were  slave  holders,  and  were 
anxious  that  the  slave  power  should  predom- 
inate in  every  new  state  of  the  West.  The 
chasm  between  the  slaveholders  of  the  South 
and  the  people  of  the  North  was  growing  wider 
and  deeper.  That  ''peculiar  institution,''  if  it 
prevailed,  must  do  so  by  political  supremacy. 
The  Mormons  did  not  contend  against  slavery, 
but  that  made  no  difference,  for  in  biblical 
language  the  Missourians  declared  that,  "those 
w^ho  are  not  for  us  are  against  us.'' 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  politics  has  been 
the  chief  cause  of  trouble  to  the  Mormon  peo- 
ple from  the  earliest  period  of  their  history. 
No  doubt  politics  had  much  to  do  with  driving 
the  Saints  from  Missouri,   but   Mormons  like 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  31 

to  vote.  They  want  to  exercise  their  fran- 
chise as  freely  as  other  people  do,  and  some- 
times they  like  to  vote  for  their  friends.  The 
bringing  of  12,000  people  into  the  state  of 
Missouri  v^ithin  a  short  time  would  naturally 
create  some  apprehension,  and  no  doubt  there 
appeared  upon  the  horizon  of  the  Missourians 
of  those  days  the  bug-a-boo  of  Missouri  un- 
der Mormon  dominion.  In  Daviess  county,  in 
the  year  1838,  a  few  Mormons  undertook  to 
exercise  their  franchise,  and  they  had  no  doubt 
been  persuaded  by  their  Gentile  brethren,  that 
it  was  not  only  their  privilege  but  tlieir  right 
to  do  so,  and  it  may  be  true  that  they  had  a 
kind  of  balance  of  power  that  the  mobocrats 
feared  and  determined  should  not  be  exercised. 
A  row  resulted  and  false  rumors  spread 
throughout  the  state  in  the  wildest  manner 
about  the  Mormons. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  such  an  ex- 
citement and  such  an  appeal  to  arms  could  not 
have  been  brought  about.  It  is  perhaps  not 
wholly  correct  to  say  that  the  ministers  did  it. 
It  was  in  part  a  question  of  animosity  on  the 
part  of  slaveholders  towards  those  of  New 
England  descent,   whom   the   slaveholders   of 


32  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

those  days  so  cordially  hated.  It  was  in  any 
event  the  wrath  of  the  evil  one  let  loose,  but  be- 
yond all  we  now  see  the  finger  of  God  pointing 
to  other  lands,  to  another  destiny,  to  a  great- 
er people  located  in  the  valleys  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  No  explanation  of  those  awful  per- 
secutions, and  of  the  hatred  of  those  days  is 
sufficient  to  make  clear  Mormon  history  in 
Missouri,  which  does  not  recognize  the  hand  of 
God  in  the  destiny  of  a  peculiar  people 
whose  future  was  to  serve  his  almighty  pur- 
poses. 

Troubles  came  thick  and  fast.  At  first  the 
out-posts  were  attacked.  The  Saints  at  De- 
witt  were  surrounded  and  compelled  to  gather 
at  Far  West.  Later  came  the  massacre  at 
Haun's  mill;  and  in  the  midst  of  it  all  Gov- 
ernor Boggs'  awful  decree  of  extermination. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  people  could  not 
have  failed  to  see  that  the  coming  storm  was 
irresistible,  and  that  they  must  leave  the  state. 
It  was  no  longer  a  question  of  what  to  do,  but 
how  to  do  it.  They  w^ere  in  dire  distress.  The 
enemy  was  giving  them  no  quarter.  There 
might  have  been  seen  in  those  days  men  and 


CHILDHOOD    IN    MISSOURI  33 

women   fleeing  in   all   directions   toward   Far 
West. 

While  all  these  things  were  going  on  John 
R.  Murdock  lived  with  the  Phelps  family  about 
two  and  one-half  miles  from  the  town.  While 
he  was  there,  Col.  Hinkle,  in  charge  of  the 
militia,  betrayed  the  Prophet  Joseph  into  the 
hands  of  the  mob.  There  the  boy  heard  the 
awful  howls,  wild  demonstrations  of  delight 
over  the  treachery  which  had  brought  the 
Prophet  and  other  leaders  of  the  Church  under 
its  control.  He  felt  the  suspense  that  was  com- 
mon to  his  people  when  the  word  reached 
his  ears  that  these  leaders  had  been  court- 
martialed  and  sentenced  to  death.  If  older 
ones  could  see  no  escape  for  those  they  loved 
from  what  seemed  certain  death,  what  must 
have  been  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  this 
boy!  If  the  situation  taxed  their  faith,  what 
must  have  been  his  trust  in  the  providences  of 
God !  The  release  from  a  situation  so  threaten- 
ing, from  death  apparently  so  certain,  must 
have  taught  him  throughout  all  his  subsequent 
years,  that  faith,  after  all,  is  the  highest  and 
strongest  assurance  that  man  can  have  under 
such  trying  ordeals  of  life. 
3 


34  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

Perhaps  this  boy  did  not  fully  sense  the  dan- 
gers with  which  he  was  surrounded  and  the 
future  hardships  which  then  immediately 
awaited  him.  His  foster  father,  Morris  Phelps, 
was  taken  prisoner  and  subjected  to  the  great 
indignities  that  befell  the  Prophet,  Parley  P. 
Pratt  and  others.  At  this  period  of  life,  when 
he  was  only  twelve  years  old,  some  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  family  fell  upon  him.  He 
was  brought  into  contact  with  the  officers  of 
the  militia,  w^ho  used  the  boy  in  securing 
horses  and  to  make  such  trades  as  the  officers 
thought  advantageous  to  them. 

He  was  thus  brought  into  the  whirl  of  ex- 
citement and  danger  which  then  prevailed.  At 
Far  West  he  was  a  witness  to  many  evil  acts 
of  an  infuriated,  low-minded  mob. 

When  the  people  in  Far  West  gathered  on 
the  public  square  to  listen  to  the  words  of  Gen- 
eral Clark  and  learn  from  him  their  doom, 
John  R.  Murdock  again  felt  those  cruel  un- 
certainties of  days  to  come  more  keenly  than 
he  felt  his  situation  when  he  crossed  the  river 
some  years  before  from  Jackson  into  Clay 
county.  Did  he  realize  the  meaning  of  those 
words   which   fell   from  the   lips   of   General 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  35 

Clark?  Did  he  know  their  awful  import? 
What  feelings  of  misgiving  they  must  have 
awakened  within  his  breast  when  those  awful 
words  were  made  clear  to  his  understanding! 
General  Clark  said:  "As  for  your  leaders, 
do  not  think,  do  not  imagine  for  a  moment,  do 
not  let  it  enter  your  minds  that  they  will  be 
delivered,  or  that  you  will  ever  see  their  faces 
again ;  for  their  fate  is  fixed,  their  die  is  cast, 
their  doom  is  sealed.  I  would  advise  you  to 
scatter  abroad  and  never  again  organize  with 
bishops,  presidents,  etc.,  lest  you  excite  the 
jealousy  of  the  people  and  subject  yourselves 
to  the  same  calamities  that  have  now  come  up- 
on you.'' 

The  Saints  now  well  understood  that  they 
could  not  remain  another  season  in  Missouri. 
It  was  not  so  much  a  question  of  what  they 
should  do,  as  what  they  could  do.  They  must 
leave.  The  people  of  Illinois  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  offered  them  a  place  of  refuge. 
The  people  of  Illinois  were  Northerners  and 
comprehended  the  misfortunes  of  the  Mor- 
mons who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  irate 
Southerners  of  Missouri.  Then  the  awful  suf- 
ferings  of  the   Saints   called   for   action   and 


36  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

they  began  immediate  preparations  during  the 
winter  of  1838  and  1839  to  cross  eastern  Mis- 
souri to  the  state  of  Illinois. 

In  those  days  travel  was  not  only  slow  but 
difficult.  Extensive  preparations  had  to  be 
made  for  even  short  journeys.  The  people 
vvcre  using  every  endeavor  to  save  all  that  they 
could  from  the  loot  of  the  mob.  Their  horses 
and  cattle  had  been  driven  away.  Besides  the 
theft  to  which  they  were  subjected,  there  was 
malicious  deviltry  in  much  that  the  mob  did. 
It  destroyed  property  in  the  most  wanton  man- 
ner. Sometimes  mobocrats  would  shoot  down 
a  cow  while  some  girl  was  milking  it.  Then 
they  brought  to  their  aid  all  sorts  of  cunning 
devices  to  excuse  their  theft  and  robbery,  when 
they  preferred  to  conceal  notoriously  open  and 
wicked  conduct.  At  the  point  of  their  guns 
they  compelled  the  Mormons  to  sign  away 
their  property  for  the  alleged  purpose  of  de- 
fraying the  expenses  of  the  war. 

The  young  Murdock  boy  was  an  eye-witness 
of  those  trying  days.  The  hardships  of  the 
people  were  his  hardships.  Being  naturally 
sensitive,  he  felt  keenly  the  ourages  which  he 
constantly  saw  perpetrated  upon  his   people. 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  37 

His  home  had  been  broken  up  by  the  capture 
of  its  head.  Fortunately,  however,  he  enjoyed 
in  some  measure  the  protecting  care  of  his  fos- 
ter mother,  Laura  Phelps,  who  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Timothy  B.  Clark,  a  well-to-do  man  in 
those  days.  This  brought  him  into  associa- 
tion with  such  men  as  William  O.  Clark,  a 
great  preacher  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Church.  He  was  also  associated  with  Ezra  T. 
Qark,  another  member  of  that  family.  The 
Clarks  had  considerable  property  for  those 
days.  Much  of  it  consisted  of  cattle  and 
horses.  In  those  times  the  experiences  of  John 
R.  Murdock  in  handling  horses  and  dealing  in 
cattle  gave  him  a  ripened  judgment  far  be- 
yond his  years.  Those  days  also  developed 
within  him  a  rare  judgment  in  handling  all 
kinds  of  live  stock,  a  judgment  which  turned 
to  most  excellent  account  in  later  years  of  life. 
In  the  spring  of  1839  he  was  entrusted  with 
one  hundred  head  of  the  Clark  cattle,  which  he 
had  to  drive  from  Far  West  to  Illinois.  In 
that  migration  of  the  Saints  the  people  went  in 
small  squads.  The  individual  responsibility 
was  much  greater  than  it  was  where  they  trav- 
eled in  large  parties.    The  boy,  however,  gave 


38  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

excellent  account  of  himself  in  this  new  re- 
sponsibility. However,  such  a  trust  would  not 
have  been  imposed  upon  him  had  he  not  given 
evidence  earlier  in  his  boyhood  of  his  fidelity 
to  every  duty  to  which  he  had  been  called.  Al- 
though a  youth  he  must  have  established  a  rep- 
utation for  industry,  care, and  judgment  far  be- 
yond that  enjoyed  by  boys  of  that  age,  for  he 
was  not  yet  thirteen  years  old. 

He  here  also  learned  the  first  lessons  which 
taught  him  the  superiority  of  Brigham  Young's 
leadership — a  leadership  that  placed  him  in 
good  service  in  Nauvoo  in  the  exodus  from 
Illinois  and  in  the  settlement  of  Utah.  Thomas 
B.  Marsh  had  fallen  and  in  the  absence  of  Jos- 
eph the  leadership  of  the  quorum  of  the  twelve 
apostles  fell  upon  Brigham  Young,  who  im- 
mediately began,  after  the  arrest  of  the  Proph- 
et, preparations  for  the  migration  of  the  Saints 
beyond  the  confines  of  Missouri ;  but  Brigham 
was  not  left  long  at  liberty  to  carry  out  this 
exodus.  His  enemies  drove  him  from  the  scene ; 
and  Heber  C.  Kimball,  who  sought  to  take  up 
the  work  where  Brigham  Young  left  off,  was 
also  handicapped.  A  committee  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  for  the  exodus  and  to  se- 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  39 

cure  opportunities  for  all  to  leave,  the  poorest 
as  well  as  those  who  were  well-to-do. 

The  journey  of  John  R.  Murdock  across 
Missouri,  with  his  herd  of  cattle,  in  the  spring 
of  1839,  was  the  history  of  a  hardship  com- 
mon to  the  men  and  women  of  that  time. 
Through  the  mud  and  rain  he  made  his  way 
as  best  he  could,  a  mere  child  upon  whom 
fell  a  responsibility  to  see  that  his  cattle  did 
not  scatter,  that  none  of  them  escaped  him, 
that  they  were  properly  fed  and  watered  and 
so  driven  as  not  to  diminish  their  value  when 
they  reached  their  journey's  end. 

Nor  was  it  merely  a  matter  of  toil,  of  want, 
or  of  excessive  responsibility.  He  was  old 
enough  to  ask  himself  some  thoughtful  ques- 
tions. What  did  it  all  mean  ?  Whither  was  he 
going?  When  would  he  find  a  permanent  rest- 
ing place  ?  How  would  he  fare  in  a  new  land  ? 
How  would  his  new  neighbors  treat  him? 
He  must  have  wondered  at  the  providences  of 
God. 

However  he  had  seen  the  hand  of  God  man- 
ifest. He  had  reason  to  trust  his  leaders  and 
somehow  and  somewhere  he  must  have  felt 
that  peace  and  protection  of  God  awaited  him. 


40  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

On  the  26th  day  of  April,  1839,  in  fulfill- 
ment of  a  prophecy  which  the  enemy  had  de- 
clared should  not  come  true,  the  Twelve,  from 
the  home  of  Timothy  B.  Clark,  made  their 
way  early  in  the  morning  to  the  public  square, 
where  they  placed  in  the  ground  a  cornerstone 
of  the  temple,  held  meeting,  sang,  spoke,  and 
finally  took  their  departure  for  the  East,  pre- 
paratory to  their  missions,  to  which  they  had 
been  called  to  the  nations  of  the  earth.  At 
this  time  Wilford  Woodruff  and  George  A. 
Smith  were  called  to  the  quorum  of  the  twelve 
apostles. 

In  the  spring  of  1839,  John  R.  Murdock 
reached  a  land  where  he  entered  upon  new  ex- 
periences which  characterized  his  stay  in  that 
state.  To  those  who  in  youth  enjoyed  the 
quietude  of  home  and  peaceful  surroundings, 
the  early  life  of  this  boy  is  not  comprehensible. 
From  the  days  of  his  earliest  recollections  he 
lived  in  the  midst  of  turmoil  and  persecution. 
The  anger  of  the  mob  and  their  awful  fury 
were  the  comtnonplace  experiences  of  his  early 
days.  The  atmosphere  he  breathed  was  charged 
with  anxieties,  hardships,  responsibilities,  and 
uncertainties.    He  became  in  those  early  days 


CHILDHOOD  IN  MISSOURI  41 

surely  a  child  of  emergencies,  and  was  taught 
to  prepare  himself  for  whatever  fell  in  his  way 
to  do.  It  was  in  those  days  that  he  learned  to 
make  the  most  of  every  opportunity  and  so  it 
happened,  in  later  life,  that  he  was  found  put- 
ting to  good  account  resources  of  which  others 
had  neither  the  courage  nor  the  ability  to  avail 
themselves.  He  has  carried  out  in  mature 
years  the  lessons  which  he  learned  in  child- 
hood. 


42  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

CHAPTER  III 

BOYHOOD   IN    ILLINOIS 

When  the  Saints  saw  that  further  effort  to 
hold  their  own  in  Missouri  would  be  fruitless, 
they  began  to  look  about  for  a  new  home.  At 
this  time  Iowa  was  a  territory,  and  to  the 
northwest  of  them  lay  a  district  of  country 
known  as  the  Half-breed  tract.  Some  effort 
was  made  to  secure  in  Iowa  land  on  which  they 
might  settle.  The  country  across  the  Missouri, 
to  the  west  of  them,  was  the  home  of  the  red 
man,  and  a  movement  in  that  direction  seemed 
quite  impossible. 

News  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Saints  reached 
the  ears  of  their  neighbors  on  the  east  in  Illi- 
nois, just  across  the  Mississippi,  in  Adams 
county.  A  feeling  of  pity  was  awakened  and 
the  citizens  of  Quincy,  in  a  friendly  and  hos- 
pitable attitude,  offered  their  good  services 
to  the  people  in  the  hour  of  their  need. 

As  the  road  went  in  those  days,  John  R. 
Murdock  had  to  travel  with  his  cattle  from  Far 
West,  about  two  hundred  miles.  New  condi- 
tions awaited  him,  but  he  was  a  boy  and  could 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  43 

forget,  perhaps,  sooner  than  those  of  mature 
years.  However,  by  nature  he  was  strong  in 
his  judgments,  wedded  to  people  and  condi- 
tions he  Hked,  and  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to 
break  loose.  When  he  reached  Quincy,  Mor- 
ris C.  Phelps  was  in  prison  in  Missouri.  Mrs. 
Phelps  was  making  preparation  to  relieve  her 
husband  or  to  render  him^  if  possible,  some  as- 
sistance in  making  his  escape,  and  if  that  were 
impossible,  to  remain  near  by  to  offer  such  help 
and  comfort  as  her  presence  would  give  to  him. 

At  this  time,  however,  the  boy's  father  felt 
the  need  of  his  assistance,  and  may,  perhaps, 
have  thought  that  it  would  relieve  his  foster 
parents  from  some  feeling  of  responsibility  if 
he  took  his  son  home  at  this  time. 

John  was  loath  to  leave  the  Phelps  home; 
his  foster  parents  were  dear  to  him,  and  he 
says  that  for  a  long  time  after  he  was  home- 
sick because  of  the  separation.  However,  he 
was  obedient  to  his  father's  wishes,  and  with 
his  brother  Orrice  he  began  to  open  a  new 
farm  in  Adams  county,  Illinois.  The  low- 
lands and  the  wooded  country  of  western  Illi- 
nois were  quite  unlike  the  prairie  country 
with  which  he  had  been  familiar  in  Missouri, 


44  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

and  he  therefore  found  it  necessary  to  adjust 
himself  to  his  new  environments. 

But  the  Saints  did  not  remain  long  in  Adams 
county.  They  had  been  welcomed  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  as  long  as  they  were  an  object  of  pity, 
feelings  of  kindness  and  hospitality  were  ex- 
tended toward  them;  but  they  were  a  strong, 
vigorous  class,  made  up  of  men  and  women  of 
the  deepest  convictions  and  they  further  pos- 
sessed indomitable  wills.  Their  progressive 
methods,  their  independent  character,  and  above 
all  their  pronounced  religious  views  were  so 
much  at  variance  with  the  sects  of  that  age 
that  it  became  necessary  for  them  to  locate  in 
a  place  where  they  could  work  in  harmony 
with  their  own  characteristics.  Indeed,  some 
apprehension  began  to  be  felt  by  a  certain  class 
in  Quincy,  who  imagined  the  Mormons  would 
lower  the  standard  of  wages. 

On  the  22nd  of  April,  1839,  the  Prophet 
reached  his  people  in  Illinois.  Brigham  Young 
and  others  had  already  explored  the  country 
northward  for  a  suitable  location,  but  no  defi- 
nite conclusions  had  been  reached.  The  Prophet 
therefore  began  at  once  to  investigate  the  situ- 
ation, and  finally  determined  to  locate  fifty 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  45 

miles  north  of  Quincy,  at  a  little  place  in  the 
bend  of  the  river^  called  Commerce.  Land  was 
bought  from  Hugh  White  and  Daniel  H.  Wells. 
This  land  became  the  nucleus  of  a  series  of 
purchases  which  later  became  the  city  of  Nau- 
voo.  This  move  meant  another  change  for 
John  R.  Murdock,  who  went  with  his  father  to 
work  on  the  new  farm  at  Nauvoo.  Here  he 
assisted  his  father  in  raising  two  crops;  and 
at  intervals,  when  not  occupied  on  the  farm, 
he  labored  in  making  cooper  ware. 

While  the  Saints  were  struggling  to  subdue 
the  soil  in  and  about  Nauvoo,  another  short 
change  came  to  the  life  of  the  boy.  Levi  Mur- 
dock,  a  relative  from  Indiana,  visited  the  boy's 
father  and  persuaded  the  latter  to  allow  him  to 
take  the  boy  home  with  him  to  Indiana.  Here 
he  remained  with  his  relative  from  fall  to  the 
following  spring,  a  period  of  about  eight 
months.  That  was  another  change — a  change 
not  only  in  environment,  but  in  the  social  life 
and  experiences  of  the  boy.  Here  he  was  oc- 
cupied in  making  sugar  from  the  maple  sap. 
All  these  changes  at  that  peculiar  age  of  life 
had  much  to  do  in  training  him  for  a  life  of 
emergencies,  and  thus  it  happened  that  in  later 


46  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

years  he  was  always  ready  for  the  exigencies 
of  any  occasion.  From"  his  infancy  he  learned 
to  become  an  opportunist,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence could  more  easily  make  himself  the 
master  of  almost  any  situation  than  could  those 
whose  experiences  were  all  of  one  peculiar  kind. 

The  boy,  however,  had  convictions  of  his 
own.  There  were  developed  within  him  pur- 
poses in  life  from  which  he  could  not  be  turned. 
He  therefore  decided  to  return  to  his  father's 
home  at  Nauvoo ;  but  between  him  and  the 
Mississippi  river  there  was  a  distance  of  some- 
thing like  three  hundred  miles  to  be  traversed. 
The  country  was  partially  settled,  the  journey 
a  long  one,  and  the  difficulties  great.  He  had, 
however,  by  this  time,  put  to  the  test  the  pos- 
sibilities of  his  own  energetic  nature.  He  was 
not  easily  daunted.  He  had  been  doing  things, 
hard  things,  from  his  earliest  recollection;  so 
he  started  out  afoot  with  his  knapsack  and  with 
only  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  in  money. 
The  road  was  lonely  and  sometimes  the  set- 
tlements were  as  far  as  thirty  miles  apart,  but 
he  was  persistent  and  finally  reached  his  fath- 
er's home  in  safety. 

On  his  arrival  home  he  accepted  an  offer  to 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  47 

work  for  a  man  by  the  name  of  John  Garner, 
and  was  put  to  work  breaking  up,  with  a  large 
plow  and  five  yoke  of  oxen,  the  prairie  land 
which  Garner  was  bringing  under  cultivation. 
This  employment  he  pursued  for  two  seasons. 
He  evidently  gave  satisfaction  to  his  employer, 
as  he  expected  to  return  and  continue  his  w^ork 
of  breaking  up  the  prairie. 

Before  he  took  up  the  work  of  another 
season,  his  father  required  the  boy  to  do  some 
work  for  a  man  named  Lott,  in  payment  of 
two  bushels  of  turnips  which  his  father  had  ob- 
tained. This  new  work  brought  the  boy  un- 
der the  favorable  notice  of  Cornelius  P.  Lott, 
who  was  at  this  time  the  superintendent  of  the 
Prophet  Joseph's  farm.  The  attachment  of 
Father  Lott  for  the  boy  led  him  to  induce 
John  R.  Murdock  to  remain  w^ith  him,  thus  his 
surroundings  were  again  changed.  He  had  to 
adjust  himself  once  more  to  a  new  home,  and  to 
make  himself  agreeable  to  its  inmates  and  use- 
ful to  his  employer.  This  brought  him  into 
contact  with  Almira  Henrietta  Lott,  a  daugh- 
ter of  his  employer,  a  girl  at  that  time  about 
thirteen  years  of  age,  and  whom  he  subsequent- 
ly married. 


AS  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

This  arrangement  with  the  Lott  family 
brought  John  R.  Murdock  into  somewhat  clos- 
er relations  with  the  Prophet,  as  he  now  be- 
came an  employee  on  Joseph  Smith's  farm, 
about  three  miles  east  of  the  Temple  in  Nau- 
voo.  The  farm  land  belonging  to  the  Saints  in 
Nauvoo  during  that  time  naturally  extended 
to  the  east  of  the  Mississippi  into  Hancock 
county.  Much  of  this  land  was  prairie,  and 
had  to  be  broken  up  by  means  of  strong  teams, 
consisting  of  four  or  five  yoke  of  oxen.  On 
the  farm  where  the  boy  was  now  employed, 
there  was  a  large  frame  building,  about  forty 
by  sixty  feet,  the  timber  of  \vhich  he  had 
hauled.  Around  the  farm  was  one  of  those 
peculiar  so-called  "worm''  railed  fences.  Be- 
sides, the  land  was  fenced  in  part  by  sod.  The 
house  on  this  half-section  farm  was  a  frame 
structure  of  eight  rooms,  four  on  the  ground 
floor  and  four  upstairs. 

This  farm  lay,  so  to  speak,  along  the  cross 
roads  of  the  country.  Nauvoo  became  the  larg- 
est city  in  the  state,  and  travel  therefore  would 
be  naturally  quite  extensive  from  this  City  of 
the  Saints  in  the  direction  of  Carthage,  of 
Quincy,  of  Monmouth  and  other  places.     In 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  49 

those  days,  with  the  exception  of  the  river 
traffic,  most  travel  was  by  horse  teams;  and 
the  farm  house  of  Joseph  Smith  was  naturally 
in  itself  an  attractive  place. 

There  was  a  newspaper  in  the  City  of  Nau- 
voo,  known  as  the  Times  and  Seasons,  and 
later  there  was  established  in  that  neighbor- 
hood the  Warsazv  Signal.  For  a  time  also 
there  was  a  newspaper  in  Carthage,  but  gen- 
erally speaking,  much  of  the  information  in 
those  days  came  by  word  of  mouth;  and  as 
those  were  exciting  times,  as  well  as  busy 
times  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  this  boy, 
no  doubt,  listened  with  intense  interest  to  those 
discussions  which  occupied  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  his  fellow  religionists. 

The  Saints  had  not  been  long  in  the  coun- 
try before  some  of  the  Missourians  began  to 
kidnap  the  Mormons  in  out-of-the-way  places, 
take  them  across  the  Mississippi  and  subject 
them  to  inhuman  treatment.  As  a  matter  of 
self-protection  and  to  guard  against  the  disposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  some  to  scatter  out  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  state,  the  Saints  were  coun- 
seled to  settle  exclusively  in  Hancock  county, 
and  across  the  river  in  Iowa  in  Lee  county. 


50  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

This  call  centered  the  activity  of  the  Saints 
within  narrower  limits  and  had  a  tendency  to 
give  to  that  part  of  the  country  a  more  per- 
fect cultivation  than  the  land  in  the  west  re- 
ceived in  those  days  when  the  people  were 
scattered  over  large  areas.  The  rapid  manner 
in  which  Nauvoo  grew  and  the  marvelous 
growth  of  wealth  in  so  short  a  period,  all  dem- 
onstrate the  superiority  of  the  co-operative 
methods  employed  by  the  Saints  at  that  time. 
This  rapid  growth,  both  in  wealth  and  popu- 
lation, naturally  excited  the  enmity  of  the  av- 
erage westerner  in  those  days.  Here,  too,  the 
Saints  learned  important  lessons  in  agriculture  : 
and  the  boy,  who  was  then,  as  afterward 
throughout  his  entire  life,  a  close  observer,  re- 
ceived valuable  lessons  in  tilling  the  soil.  His 
training  on  the  Prophet's  farm,  and  his  experi- 
ences in  Missouri  had,  therefore,  taught  him 
to  gather  up  all  the  available  resources  with 
which  he  was  surrounded,  and  apply  them  to 
his  immediate  needs.  This  training,  together 
with  his  natural  adaptability,  made  him  in  after 
life  an  excellent  financier. 

In  June,  1841,  an  effort  was  made,  through 
a  requisition  by  Governor  Boggs  of  Missouri 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  51 

and  Governor  Carlin  of  Illinois,  to  have  Joseph 
Smith  brought  back  again  to  Missouri  to  be 
tried  on  the  charges  under  which  he  had  been 
indicted  before  he  escaped  from  that  state.  It 
was  now  over  two  years  since  he  had  left  Mis- 
souri; and  while  the  Saints  were  staggering 
under  the  blow  that  had  been  so  cruelly  inflict- 
ed upon  them  by  the  Missourians,  the  latter,  no 
doubt,  felt  that  the  Saints  would  fall  beneath 
it.  However,  their  recovery  and  their  wonder- 
ful success  in  building  up  the  City  of  Nauvoo, 
led  the  Missourians  to  break  out  again  in  their 
animosity  against  the  Mormons.  What  could 
have  been  the  thoughts  of  this  young  man, 
when,  now  only  fifteen  years  old,  as  he  beheld 
the  malicious  purpose  with  which  his  Prophet 
and  his  people  were  hounded.  Could  he  have 
anticipated,  then,  another  exodus?  If  not  at 
that  time,  he  must  have  thought  such  a  thing 
possible,  when  he  learned  of  the  predictions  of 
the  Prophet  in  August,  1842,  while  the  Mont- 
rose, Iowa.  In  his  prediction  there  the  Prophet 
says :  "I  prophesied  that  the  Saints  would  con- 
tinue to  suffer  much  affliction  and  would  be 
driven  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  many  would 
apostatize,  others  would  be  put  to  death  by  our 


52  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

persecutors,  or  lose  their  lives  in  consequence 
of  exposure  or  disease,  and  some  of  you  will 
live  to  go  and  assist  in  making  settlements  and 
in  building  cities  and  see  the  Saints  become  a 
mighty  people  in  the  midst  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains/' 

John  R.  Murdock  learned  in  Nauvoo  some 
of  the  peculiar  methods  of  the  adversary. 
Among  the  Saints  then,  unscrupulous  charac- 
ters were  found.  Men  would  take  advantage 
of  agitation  and  excitement  and  prejudice  of 
the  times  to  gratify  their  own  evil  inclinations. 
At  times  the  country  round  about  was  infested 
by  thieves ;  men  followed  their  natural  inclina- 
tions under  a  religious  guise.  They  con- 
cealed under  the  cloak  of  sanctimony  their  ill- 
gotten  gains  and  the  fruits  of  their  thefts. 
There  were  those,  no  doubt,  naturally  honest 
who  were  now  and  again  made  the  victims  of 
evil  deceptions ;  but  John  R.  Murdock  was  not 
among  that  class.  He  was  a  boy,  as  he  since 
has  been  a  man,  of  pronounced  convictions, 
and  from  the  outset  of  his  life  in  his  childhood 
days,  he  was  most  fortunate  in  his  surround- 
ings. He  had  before  him  the  example  of  ex- 
cellent men;  he  was  industrious  and  was  car- 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  53 

rying  out  a  definite  injunction  by  earning  his 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Those  who 
knew  John  R.  Murdock  in  later  life  well  un- 
derstood that  he  was  a  good  judge  of  men. 
He  was  not  easily  carried  off  his  feet  in  ex- 
citement, and  his  excellent  discrimination  en- 
abled him  to  determine  a  safe  and  correct  pol- 
icy to  pursue.  To  that  judgment,  which  was 
so  pronounced  in  him  in  after  life,  he  brought 
the  experiences  of  his  boyhood  days. 

When  in  and  about  Nauvoo  he  learned  the 
lesson  of  discerning  good  from  evil  spirits. 
Those  who  have  had  familiar  acquaintance 
with  John  R.  Murdock  know  how  quick  he  al- 
ways was  to  gather  up  the  experiences  of  those 
early  days  and  apply  them  as  a  test  when  new 
conditions  arose  and  when  men,  through^  their 
sophistries,  undertook  to  mislead  either  him  or 
his  friends.  His  experiences  in  those  early 
trying  times  were  indeed  remarkable,  and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  one  in  the  Church  had 
a  more  varied  and  remarkable  career,  both  in 
childhood  and  in  boyhood  than  that  which  fell 
to  his  lot. 

An  attempt  on  the  life  of  ex-Governor  Boggs 
of  Missouri,  on  May  6th,  1842,  gave  rise  to  re- 


54  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

newed  effort  to  secure  the  Prophet  Joseph's 
presence  in  the  state  of  Missouri.  Another 
requisition  was  therefore  made  by  the  governor 
of  that  commonwealth  on  the  governor  of  II- 
Hnois.  The  Prophet,  however,  was  not  in  Nau- 
voo,  but  had  gone  on  a  visit  with  his  wife  to 
her  sister's  home  in  Dixon,  Iowa,  where  the 
Prophet  was  seized  unawares  and  after  some 
effort  secured  an  investigation  of  his  case  on 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  before  the  officers  in 
Nauvoo.  His  return  to  Nauvoo  created  con- 
siderable excitement  throughout  the  city  and 
in  the  surrounding  neighborhood.  There  was 
a  grand  demonstration  on  his  return,  people 
going  out  by  the  thousands  to  meet  him.  These 
interesting  times  were  all  familiar  to  John  R. 
Murdock,  who  during  his  labor  on  the  Proph- 
et's farm,  had  frequent  opportunities  to  meet 
him,  to  learn  something  of  the  character,  dis- 
position and  life  of  the  Prophet  Joseph.  Of 
him  he  says :  "He  was  one  of  the  noblest  and 
most  admirable  men  that  one  could  ever  meet, 
both  for  his  physical  and  mental  attractions. 
Any  one  in  his  company  would  feel  that  he  was 
with  his  superior,  yet  he  was  so  kind  and  so 
lovable.       He  often  brought   his     family    to 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  55 

the  farm,  for  his  family  and  Father  Lott 
were  on  terms  of  great  intimacy.  We  all 
passionately  loved  and  revered  our  Prophet. 
He  used  to  relate  to  us  many  instances  of  his 
life.  In  common  labor,  as  mowing,  chopping, 
cradling,  and  so  forth  he  was  an  expert.  He 
scarcely  ever  met  his  equal  as  an  athlete,  and 
he  took  great  delight  in  all  healthful  sports.'' 
This  boy's  conception  of  the  Prophet  was 
unlike  that  of  the  sectarian  w^orld  in  his  day. 
There  was  nothing  unscriptural  in  a  young 
man  acting  as  a  Prophet  of  God,  since  both 
Samuel  and  Daniel  of  old  were  youths,  but 
somehow  or  other  the  idea  of  old  age  is  as- 
sociated with  the  ideas  of  both  prophets  and 
patriarchs.  The  long  flowing  beard,  the  grace- 
ful mantel,  the  slow,  dignified  movement,  long 
hair,  and  the  absent  gaze  were  the  leading  fea- 
tures in  the  portrayal  of  prophets  by  the  great 
artists  of  the  middle  ages.  Joseph  Smith  was 
a  young  man,  worked  on  the  farm  beside  this 
boy,  John  R.  Murdock,  and  told  him  in  the  sim- 
ple language  of  childhood  the  experiences  of 
his  prophetic  career.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
Prophet's  appearance  to  arouse  any  feelings  of 


56  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

superstition;  he  was  a  man  lovable,  confiding, 
and  inspiring. 

John  R.  Murdock  had  learned  from  his  ear- 
liest recollection  that  political  differences  were 
a  source  of  intense  animosity  among  those  who 
belonged  simply  to  the  contending  national  par- 
ties of  his  time.  These  parties  were  like 
great  mill-stones,  grinding  whatever  came  be- 
tween them.  He  further  learned  that  bitter  as 
political  controversies  could  be^  that  religious 
hatred  united  with  political  hatred  constituted 
the  most  awful  enmity  that  can  enter  the  hu- 
man heart.  It  required  the  utmost  adroitness 
to  keep  from  between  these  two  mill-stones  of 
political  contentions — an  adroitness  which  the 
Saints  of  God,  then,  and  even  in  earlier  times 
in  the  history  of  ancient  Israel  did  not  pos- 
sess ;  for  the  children  of  darkness  are  shrewder 
in  their  generation  than  the  children  of  light. 

The  writer  can  not  here  refrain  from  an- 
swering the  very  common  accusation  that  po- 
litics on  the  part  of  the  Church  is  the  source 
of  the  Church's  trouble.  In  such  accusations 
the  inference  is  drawn  that  the  elders  of  the 
Church  are  therefore  responsible  for  the  per- 
secutions which  beset  the  Saints.     Now,  as  a 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  57 

matter  of  fact,  there  is  nothing  new  in  the  as- 
sertion that  politics  have  been  a  source  of  trou- 
ble to  the  Saints  of  God ;  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  politics  were  a  source  of  trouble  to 
God's  children  in  ancient  days.  If  the  reader 
will  take  up  a  map  of  ancient  history,  he  will 
quickly  see  that  Palestine  of  ancient  times  lay 
between  the  Assyrians  on  the  east,  and  the 
Babylonians  on  the  west.  These  great  nations 
were  constantly  at  war  with  each  other.  The 
ancient  Israelites  sometimes  held  the  balance  of 
powder  between  them,  and  these  nations  were 
constantly  seeking  the  favor  of  the  Israelites, 
so  there  grew  up  among  the  Saints  of  God  in 
those  days  a  partisan  spirit.  Some  were 
classified  with  the  Babylonians,  and  others 
with  the  Egyptians.  Sometimes  the  prophet 
of  God  took  a  hand  in  politics,  and  warned  the 
Saints  in  those  days  against  relying  on  one 
or  the  other  of  these  great  nations.  The  read- 
er will  find  frequent  references  in  Isaiah  to 
his  warnings  against  the  trust  which  those  of 
the  Egyptian  party  put  in  that  country,  and  in 
its  horses  and  chariots.  There  were  political 
contentions  in  the  days  of  Christ.  Political 
persecutions  followed  the  Saints  of  God  in  the 


58  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

days  of  the  apostles,  and  later  throughout  the 
Roman  empire.  It  may  be  remarked  that  from 
ancient  times  up  to  our  own  day  there  has  been 
a  peculiar  disposition  to  look  to  one  or  another 
great  party  for  some  sort  of  political  salvation. 

In  the  days  of  Joseph,  the  Prophet  himself 
and  the  Saints  generally  no  doubt  struggled 
to  keep  from  being  drawn  between  the  mill- 
stones that  ground  the  Saints  then,  and  that 
have  ground  them  in  past  days.  Perhaps  the 
Lord  w^as  not  averse  to  the  grinding  process. 
Before  the  bran  can  be  separated  from  the 
flour,  some  sort  of  grinding  has  always  been 
found  necessary.  When  the  wheat  has  been 
ground,  a  slight  breeze  and  a  little  bolting  sep- 
arates easily  the  bran.  So  in  God's  dispensa- 
tion the  religious  persecutions  of  the  times 
have  kept  separate  the  nourishing  kernel,  the 
bread  of  life,  from  the  bran,  which  is  found  in 
the  companionship  of  those  unworthy  ones  w^ho 
somehow  or  other  gain  fellowship  in  the  society 
of  the  elect. 

During  the  closing  year  of  the  Prophet 
Joseph's  life,  John  R.  Murdock,  though  then 
between  seventeen  and  eighteen  years  of  age, 
learned  considerable  about  politics  in  church 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  59 

and  state.  He  learned  that  political  power  was 
really  the  only  power  that  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  Illinois  either  respected  or  hated,  ac- 
cording to  their  political  affiliations.  The  ex- 
cuse for  here  commenting  on  church  and  state 
in  his  biography  is  his  well  known  views,  ex- 
pressed both  in  public  and  private  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  writer  here  comments  upon  conver- 
sations which  he  had  with  Elder  Murdock  on 
political  topics.  John  R.  Murdock  used  to  say 
that  the  two  greatest  public  influences  were 
political  and  religious,  and  he  thought  it  un- 
fortunate that  men  exercising  the  powers  that 
arise  from  these  influences  could  not  be  more 
tolerant  toward  each  other.  In  past  ages  the 
church  overawed  the  state  and  assumed  pow- 
ers it  had  no  right  to  exercise.  Now  the  pen- 
dulum is  swinging  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
the  state  is  becoming  intolerant  toward  the 
church.  "For  my  part,"  he  was  wont  to  say, 
"I  have  come  to  recognize  the  political  powder 
of  the  saloon  element,  the  political  power  of  or- 
ganized labor,  the  political  power  of  wealth  and 
great  corporations,  and  I  expect  that  influen- 
tial religious  men  will  have  their  share  of  po- 
litical power.     They  are  naturally  leaders  in 


60  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

society  and  have  their  convictions  on  matters 
of  state.  The  fact  is,  there  must  be  some  al- 
lowances made  on  both  sides  if  we  are  to  get 
along  well.  We  must  learn  to  respect  each 
other.'' 

He  was  not  mistaken,  however,  about  the 
motives  which  governed  those  that  expelled  the 
Saints  from  Nauvoo.  The  motives  could  not 
be  accounted  for  in  political  differences.  The 
awful  hatred  of  those  times  was  deeper  than 
politics,  deeper  than  social  differences.  It  ex- 
tended to  the  very  depths  of  hell. 

When  the  Expositor  printing  press  was  de- 
stroyed by  order  of  the  mayor  of  Nauvoo  be- 
cause it  was  a  public  nuisance,  the  whole  at- 
mosphere of  the  Saints  was  charged  with  fear, 
dread,  and  deep-seated  anxiety.  Mob  violence 
even  without  the  law  began  to  manifest  itself 
so  intensely  that  he  expected  something  like 
the  same  treatment  which  the  Saints  received 
in  Missouri.  There  was  one  difference,  how- 
ever, which  was  manifest,  the  Saints  were  more 
numerous.  They  had  a  well  organized  militia. 
The  most  natural  question  that  people  asked 
themselves  in  those  times  was  whether  they 
should  stand  their  ground  and  fight  it  out. 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  61 

Numerous  as  they  were,  they  were  not  in  num- 
bers sufficiently  strong  to  cope  with  the  state 
of  IlHnois  and  perhaps  with  the  state  of  Mis- 
souri. If  the  Saints  were  more  numerous, 
the  enemy  had  likewise  grown  to  immensely 
greater  proportions.  What  the  Latter-day 
Saints  would  do  under  the  circumstances 
was  the  absorbing  topic  of  the  times. 

Young  Murdock  had  an  unbounded  faith  in 
the  courage  and  wisdom  of  the  Prophet,  and 
he  went  to  Nauvoo  to  learn  all  that  he  could 
about  the  situation.  He  was  present  there  when 
Joseph  Smith  stood  upon  the  framework  of  an 
unfinished  building,  in  full  uniform,  surround- 
ed by  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  of  which  he  was  a 
member,  and  listened  to  the  remarkable  words 
that  fell  from  the  Prophet's  lips  on  that  oc- 
casion :  "I  call  God  and  angels  to  witness  that 
I  have  unsheathed  my  sword  with  a  firm  de- 
termination that  these  people  shall  have  their 
legal  rights,  and  be  protected  from  mob  vio- 
lence, or  my  blood  shall  be  spilled  upon  the 
ground  like  water,  and  my  body  consigned  to 
the  silent  tomb.  While  I  live  I  will  never 
tamely  submit  to  the  dominion  of  cursed  mob- 
ocracy.     I  would  welcome  death  rather  than 


62  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

submit  to  this ;  and  it  would  be  sweet,  O,  sweet, 
to  rest  in  the  grave,  rather  than  submit  to  this 
oppression,  agitation,  annoyance,  alarm  upon 
alarm  any  longer." 

What  must  have  been  the  effect  of  such 
words  as  they  fell  on  the  ears  of  this  boy,  not 
yet  eighteen  years  of  age!  The  words  were 
somewhat  ominous,  and  were  prophetic  of  the 
great  tragedy  which  ended  the  Prophet's  life. 
It  was  a  solemn  occasion — one  of  those  which 
men  do  not  forget  after  having  witnessed  such 
a  scene  as  followed  the  Prophet's  declaration. 
There  are  some  things  in  this  world  that  are  so 
solemn  and  so  impressed  upon  the  recollection 
of  the  past  that  they  are  never  forgotten,  and 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  boy's  subsequent  life 
carried  wdth  it  a  touch  of  the  solemnity  which 
he  felt  on  that  occasion ;  besides,  it  was  an  oc- 
casion which  he  often  called  to  mind  and  upon 
which  he  frequently  conversed  in  the  subse- 
quent years  of  his  life. 

That  the  Prophet  was  fully  conscious  of  his 
approaching  death  is  found  in  his  request  that 
his  brother  Hyrum  go  with  his  family  to  Cin- 
cinnati, so  that  he  might  succeed  the  Prophet 
as  President  of  the  Church,  in  case  his  fore- 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  63 

bodings  were  realized.  There  was  in  those  days 
a  movement  to  and  fro  between  Carthage  and 
Nauvoo.  Along  the  road  was  Joseph's  farm, 
where  young  Murdock  labored.  That  farm 
was  a  source  of  great  pride  to  the  Prophet.  It 
was  wxll  kept  by  those  who  were  intrusted 
with  its  care. 

At  first  the  Prophet  acted  with  a  view  to  self- 
preservation.  He  w^ould  have  gone  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  quest  of  peace,  and  to  be 
isolated  far  from  his  enemies.  One  naturally 
asks  the  question,  would  the  Saints  have  fol- 
lowed him;  would  they  have  abandoned  their 
beautiful  Nauvoo;  and  if  they  had  done  so, 
would  they  not  have  looked  back  upon  the 
"flesh  pots''  of  that  beautiful  city  and  longed  to 
return?  That  was  not  W'hat  happened.  They 
were  driven,  plundered,  outraged.  When  they 
set  out  upon  that  great  pioneer  journey  there 
were  no  regrets  left  behind  them.  In  it  all  they 
now  see  God's  providence;  and  the  lessons  of 
that  exodus  are  sources  of  faith  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  who  have  realized  more 
fully  as  a  consequence,  that  they  are  God's  peo- 
ple, and  like  Israel  of  old  are,  after  all,  depend- 
ent upon  his  mercies. 


64  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

There  was  also  another  testimony — that 
which  Joseph  sealed  by  his  blood.  That  tes- 
timony grows  in  significance  and  in  far-reach- 
ing consequence  to  the  Latter-day  Saints,  as 
time  goes  on.  When,  therefore,  the  Prophet 
yielded  to  the  demands  of  his  enemies  and  set 
out  upon  that  fatal  journey  from  Nauvoo, 
John  R.  Murdock  was  one  who  gazed  in  wond- 
erment and  silence  upon  the  Prophet,  who 
declared  that  he  was  "going  like  a  lamb  to  the 
slaughter,  but  calm  as  a  summer's  morning." 
"I  have,"  he  said,  "a  conscience  void  of  offense 
toward  God  and  all  men.  I  shall  die  innocent, 
and  it  shall  be  said  of  me,  he  was  murdered  in 
cold  blood." 

The  Prophet  halted  at  his  farm,  where  the 
boy  had  another  opportunity  of  witnessing  the 
man  whose  influence  upon  his  young  life  had 
been  more  powerful  than  that  of  any  other 
man.  That  influence  upon  him  gave  a  setting 
to  the  character  of  his  manhood,  and  to  the 
unyielding  faith  which  carried  him  through 
trying  places,  and  was  in  a  measure  to  him  a 
guiding  star  throughout  life. 

"If  one  of  you  had  such  a  farm,"  said  Jos- 
eph, *'and  knew  you  would  not  see  it  any  more. 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  65 

you  would  want  to  take  a  good  look  at  it  for 
the  last  time."  Did  the  boy  take  a  good  look 
at  the  Prophet?  He  had  always  looked  upon 
him  with  admiration  and  reverence ;  but  a  boy 
so  young  would  not  have  realized  what  it  all 
meant.  He  was  like  the  disciples  of  Jesus, — 
there  were  things  that  he  ought  not  to  know, 
for  he  could  not  endure  them.  So  we  trace 
him  throughout  life,  moving  day  by  day  ac- 
cording to  the  light  and  testimony  which  God 
vouchsafed  for  his  guidance.  That  to  John  R. 
Murdock  was  given  the  privilege  of  a  witness 
at  such  a  time  in  the  history  of  his  life,  and 
in  the  history  of  the  Church  was  perhaps  one 
of  the  greatest  sources  of  pride  that  he  ever 
felt. 

As  the  Prophet  stopped  at  the  farm  and  bade 
the  Lott  family  there  good-bye,  he  did  not  for- 
get the  boy  who  was  with  them.  He  says  that 
the  Prophet  was  escorted  by  a  party  consisting 
of  about  twelve  mounted  men.  Among  them 
were  officers  of  the  state,  who  had  arrested  him. 
There  were  also  some  of  the  brethren  present. 
The  boy  was  at  the  farm  w^hen  the  news  of  the 
awful  tragedy  at  Carthage  was  brought  by 
George  D.  Grant.  He  was  also  a  witness  of  the 
5 


66  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

lamentations  of  the  people,  and  joined  in  the 
mourning  which  the  Saints  manifested  over  the 
death  of  their  Prophet.  It  is  said :  "The 
groans  and  sobs  and  shrieks  grew  deeper  and 
louder  till  the  sound  resembled  the  roar  of  a 
mighty  tempest,  or  the  slow,  deep  roar  of  a 
distant  tornado/'  He  was  also  present  at  the 
Mansion  House  where  the  bodies  lay  in  state 
for  some  time.  He  witnessed  the  funeral  ser- 
vices which  were  held  there,  and  was  among 
those  who,  in  a  prayerful  and  silent  demeanor, 
were  wondering  who  could  and  who  would 
take  the  Prophet's  place.  He  knew  that  Joseph 
Smith  was  not  the  Church,  and  was  old  enough 
to  understand  that  the  mantle  of  the  Prophet's 
authority  had  been  placed  upon  the  leaders' 
shoulders  by  divine  authority.  He  still  had 
faith  that  the  same  divine  power  would  desig- 
nate the  future  leader  to  the  people,  and  that 
Joseph's  mantle  would  fall  w^here  God  de- 
signed it  should  be. 

The  young  boy  must  have  shared  between 
the  memorable  27th  of  June,  1844,  and  Febru- 
ary, 1846,  much  of  the  uncertainty  that  per- 
vaded the  body  of  the  Saints  settled  in  and 
about   Nauvoo.     Between   twenty  and   thirty 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  (>7 

thousand  people  were  numbered  among  the 
Prophet's  followers.  From  every  worldly  judg- 
ment their  case  seemed  hopeless.  The  Nau- 
voo  Legion  numbered  about  five  thousand.  It 
could  not  cope  with  the  overwhelming  forces 
of  the  Illinois  militia.  Although  the  Prophet 
was  dead,  the  hatred  towards  the  Saints  had 
not  abated;  indeed,  they  felt  it  more  keenly 
than  ever  because  Joseph  stood  between  them 
and  the  murderous  intent  of  blood-thirsty 
mobs.  The  people  were  put  upon  their  own 
mettle.  Each  one  now,  more  than  any  other 
time  in  the  Church,  must  decide  for  himself  and 
cast  his  die  for  good  or  ill.  Those  who  were 
weary  and  heart-sore  might  drop  by  the  way- 
side if  they  chose. 

The  Prophet,  however,  had  foreseen  the 
days  of  trial  which  awaited  the  Saints.  As  he 
turned  his  gaze  for  the  last  time  upon  Nau- 
voo  when  leaving  it  for  Carthage,  he  re- 
marked: "This  is  the  loveliest  place  and  the 
best  people  under  the  heavens.  Little  do  they 
know  the  trials  that  await  them."  "Boys,"  he 
said,  as  he  passed  the  Masonic  Hall,  "if  I 
don't  come  back,  take  care  of  yourselves." 
Joseph  knew  and  declared  what  the  Saints  have 


68  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

confirmed  by  subsequent  experience:  "They 
seek  the  blood  of  every  man  in  whose  heart 
dwells  a  single  spark  of  the  fulness  of  the  gos- 
pel." 

If  Nauvoo  was  dear  to  the  heart  of  its 
founder  and  Prophet,  it  was  also  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  They  were  not  recon- 
ciled to  the  thought  of  its  abandonment.  Its 
enemies,  by  their  intolerance  and  cruelty,  not 
only  caused  distress  and  mourning,  but  had 
awakened  a  spirit  of  resistance  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Saints.  John  R.  Murdock  was  a  member 
of  the  Nauvoo  Legion.  Would  he  have  to 
yield  to  the  demands  of  the  enemy,  or  would 
he  have  to  fight?  He  was  ready  to  respond 
to  the  call  of  duty  and  held  himself  ready  for 
action  at  the  bugle  call.  The  thought  of  a 
struggle  at  arms  could  not  have  carried  with  it 
in  his  heart  m.uch  hope  of  success. 

Little  by  little  the  pressure  upon  the  Saints 
grew  stronger  and  stronger.  They  witnessed 
the  determination  of  the  enemy  to  drive  them 
— God  alone  knew  where !  The  Saints  before 
long  learned  that  they  must  go.  When  it  came 
John  R.  Murdock's  turn  to  look  for  the  last 
time  upon  that  farm  which  his  own  hands  had 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  69 

helped  to  beautify,  he  felt  something  of  the 
sorrows  which  the  Prophet  realized  when  he 
said  good-bye  to  it. 

Upon  the  Prophet's  death,  John  R.  Murdock 
came  under  a  new  leadership — a  leadership 
whose  strength  and  spiritual  guidance  he  rec- 
ognized from  the  outset — a  leadership  to 
which  he  became  thoroughly  devoted  in  the 
upbuilding  of  his  own  manhood  and  in  the  up- 
lifting of  the  communities  over  which  he  pre- 
sided for  many  years.  As  the  new  leadership 
fastened  itself  so  strongly  upon  the  life  and 
character  of  this  young  man,  it  is  interesting 
to  know  how  he  first  came  to  recognize  it,  and 
then  we  shall  see  why  he  was  always  loyal 
to  it. 

He  was  not  eighteen  years  old  when  the 
Prophet  and  his  brother  Hyrum  were  mar- 
tyred, but  he  was  old  enough  to  consider  seri- 
ously what  was  at  that  time  a  new  and  im- 
portant question — the  leadership  of  the 
Church.  There  had  been  a  First  Presidency 
and  there  was  a  quorum  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles upon  whom  the  Prophet  had  conferred  the 
keys  of  the  new  dispensation,  and  whose  right 
it  w^as  to  exercise  the  power  of  control  when 


70  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

the  Prophet  should  pass  away.  Sidney  Rig- 
don,  however,  was  a  counselor  to  the  Prophet 
Joseph  at  the  time  of  the  latter's  death.  The 
people  had  not  learned  then  what  is  now  sim- 
ple and  commonplace  knowledge,  that  the 
death  of  the  president  ends  the  control  of  the 
presidency.  Sidney  Rigdon  had  been  sent  to 
Pittsburg,  and  Joseph  had  thanked  God  that 
he  was  out  of  the  way ;  for  the  Prophet  knew 
the  decline  in  Sidney  Rigdon's  faith  and  his  in- 
ability to  lead  the  Church.  It  is  said  that  there 
were  at  that  time  three  different  views  on  this 
important  question  of  Church  discipline.  There 
were  those  who  thought  Sidney  Rigdon  should 
lead,  become  a  "guardian  of  the  Church ;"  oth- 
ers looked  to  the  Twelve,  and  there  were  oth- 
ers, who  though  perhaps  not  different,  were 
nevertheless  in  a  state  of  confusion  without 
any  particular  conviction  upon  the  subject. 
Those  who  were  supporting  Sidney  Rigdon 
were  not  a  body  of  men  who  commanded  the 
respect  of  the  most  faithful  Latter-day  Saints. 
Sidney  Rigdon  made  his  appearance  upon 
the  scene  shortly  after  the  death  of  the  Prophet 
when  only  a  few  of  the  Twelve  were  present. 
A  day  was  appointed  when  the  matter  of  lead- 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  71 

ership  should  be  presented  to  the  people.  For 
them,  it  was  their  utmost  good  fortune  that 
Brigham  Young  and  a  sufficient  number  of 
the  Twelve,  constituting  a  majority,  appeared 
upon  the  scene  just  before  this  important  meet- 
ing— perhaps  the  most  important  meeting  in 
the  Church — convened.  The  question  of  lead- 
ership was  involved,  and  the  people  were  to 
vote  upon  that  question.  Sidney  Rigdon  had 
some  time  before  addressed  the  Saints.  They 
listened  respectfully  to  his  message.  His 
claims  did  not  satisfy.  His  spirit  did  not  feed 
their  hungry  souls.  President  Young  also  ad- 
dressed the  people. 

It  was  the  good  fortune  of  John  R.  Mur- 
dock  to  be  present  at  this  meeting  and  deter- 
mine for  himself  the  guidance  to  which  there- 
after he  would  give  his  loyalty.  Of  Brigham 
Young's  remarks,  he  said :  'It  was  the  great- 
est manifestation  I  ever  beheld,  for  the  voice, 
the  gesture,  the  whole  appearance  of  President 
Young  was  just  exactly  as  if  the  Prophet  Jos- 
eph stood  there  in  person.''  Such  a  spiritual 
manifestation  must  indeed  have  deeply  im- 
pressed this  young  man.  He  had  seen  the  stars 
of  heaven  fall  in  a  most  miraculous  manner 


n  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

he  had  seen  remarkable  prophecies  fulfilled, 
the  healing  power  of  God  had  been  abundant- 
ly manifested  within  his  observation;  the 
prophetic  character  of  Joseph  Smith  had  indel- 
ibly marked  itself  upon  his  soul;  but  the  ap- 
pearance of  Brigham  Young  on  that  occasion 
was  the  greatest  manifestation  that  he  ever  be- 
held. 

No  wonder  the  young  man  gave  instant  loy- 
alty to  the  new  leadership.  No  wonder  that 
his  devotion  was  rewarded  by  the  honorable 
and  trusted  positions  which  he  held  in  the 
Church.  From  that  day  on  he  followed  the 
new  Prophet  as  a  guiding  star.  Nor  was  his 
confidence  and  loyalty  ever  weakened  or  ever 
surrendered  to  any  exigency  or  even  to  any 
misgivings. 

He  witnessed  nearly  two  years  of  the  trying 
scenes  in  and  about  Nauvoo,  after  the  Proph- 
et's death.  He  saw  men  in  high  places  fall  bv 
the  wayside.  He  witnessed  the  spiritual  mani- 
festations grow  obscure  in  those  w^ho  were 
contentious  and  who  claimed  honor  at  the 
hands  of  the  people.  He  was,  therefore,  pre- 
pared to  leave  Nauvoo  and  those  who  were 
recreant  to  the  cause  of  God     behind     him. 


BOYHOOD  IN  ILLINOIS  73 

Those  parting  scenes  were  object  lessons  in  his 
life,  and  he  never  forgot  them,  nor  did  he 
forget  the  lesson  taught  by  those  unworthy 
leaders  he  left  behind  when  he  said  good-bye 
to  Illinois. 


74  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

CHAPTER  IV 

IN   THE   MORMON   BATTALION 

John  R.  Murdock,  when  the  advanced  com- 
pany of  Latter-day  Saints  left  Nauvoo,  was 
not  quite  twenty  years  of  age.  He  was  in  the 
prime  and  vigor  of  early  manhood  and  had  al- 
ready at  that  time  of  life  more  experience  in 
pioneer  work  and  encountering  the  difficulties 
of  a  new  country  than  come  to  most  pioneers 
in  an  entire  lifetime.  His  early  experiences 
fitted  him  for  the  new  undertaking — an  under- 
taking that  was  to  tax  his  energies  and  en- 
durance more  than  anything  he  could  imagine, 
even  from  the  uncertainties  of  those  times.  He 
knew  something  about  what  it  required  to 
make  a  long  journey,  and  well  he  realized  the 
truth  of  the  old  adage,  'Well  begun,  half 
done." 

The  Saints  began  their  exodus  from'  Nau- 
voo on  the  fourth  and  sixth  of  February.  They 
exchanged  the  conveniences  of  their  homes  for 
tent  life  in  midwinter.  Fast  as  they  crossed 
the  Mississippi  they  gathered  at  Sugar  Creek, 
where  they  remained  some  three  weeks  pre- 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  75 

paratory  to  a  general  advancement  along  the 
journey.  Intense  cold  came  upon  them.  The 
Mississippi  froze  over  so  that  wagons  could 
cross  on  the  ice.  While  such  conditions  fa- 
cilitated the  movement  of  the  Saints  over  the 
river,  it  entailed  intense  suffering.  When  a 
thaw  came  the  roads  were  almost  impassable. 
In  the  midst  of  these  difficulties  the  young  man 
was  gaining  a  new  experience.  He  was  learn- 
ing something  of  the  helplessness  of  a  large 
class  of  people  in  the  midst  of  difficulties.  He 
discovered  that  many  were  wholly  unfitted  for 
emergencies,  that  they  had  to  be  instructed; 
and  from  the  outset  his  own  valuable  experi- 
ence naturally  made  him  an  instructor  of  the 
helpless  in  those  times,  and  consequently, 
though  young,  a  leader  among  his  fellow-men. 
Along  the  route  across  Iowa  there  were 
three  important  stations,  Sugar  Creek,  Garden 
City,  and  Pisgah.  Just  about  the  time  the  ad- 
vance company  reached  the  banks  of  the  Mis- 
souri river,  there  appeared  at  Mount  Pisgah, 
James  Allen,  a  captain  in  the  United  States 
army.  In  his  communication  to  the  Saints  he 
says :  "I  have  come  among  you,  instructed  to 
visit  the  Mormon  camp  and  accept  the  service. 


76  •    JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

for  twelve  months,  of  four  or  five  companies 
of  the  Mormon  men  who  may  be  wilHng  to 
serve  their  country  for  the  period  in  our  pres- 
ent war  with  Mexico."  The  leaders,  however, 
at  this  time  were  located  at  Council  Bluffs, 
and  Captain  Allen  set  out  at  once  for  that 
place  for  the  purpose  of  consulting  them.  On 
July  the  first,  he  held  an  interview  with  Presi- 
dent Young,  to  whom  he  presented  a  commu- 
nication from  Col.  S.  W.  Kerny,  in  which  the 
colonel  says :  "Sir — It  is  understood  that  there 
is  a  large  body  of  Mormons  w^ho  are  desirous 
of  emigrating  to  California  for  the  purpose  of 
settling  in  that  country,  and  I  have  therefore 
to  direct  that  you  (Captain  James  Allen)  will 
proceed  to  their  camps  and  endeavor  to  raise 
from  amongst  them  four  or  five  companies  of 
volunteers  to  join  me  in  my  expedition  to  that 
country.  You  will  give  the  Mormons  distinct- 
ly to  understand  that  I  wish  to  take  them  as 
volunteers  for  twelve  months,  and  that  they 
wull  be  marched  to  California,  receiving  pay 
and  allowances  during  the  above  time,  and  at 
its  expiration  they  will  be  discharged  and  al- 
lowed to  retain,  as  their  private  property,  the 
guns  and  accoutrements  to  be   furnished  to 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  11 

them  at  this  post.  Each  company  will  be  al- 
lowed four  women  as  laundresses,  who  will 
travel  with  the  company,  receiving  rations,  and 
the  other  allowances  given  to  the  laundresses  of 
our  army.  Considering  the  foregoing  conditions, 
which  are  hereby  pledged  to  the  Mormons,  and 
which  will  be  faithfully  kept  by  me  and  other 
officers  in  behalf  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  I  cannot  doubt,  but  that  you  will 
in  a  few  days  be  able  to  raise  five  hundred 
young  and  efficient  men  for  this  expedition. 
Signed  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  June  19th,  1846.'' 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  letter  of  Colonel 
Kerny  to  Captain  Allen  contained  an  assur- 
ance that  the  Mormons  would  be  treated  fairly 
in  the  matter  and  the  pledges  made  with  them 
kept.  This  call  for  volunteers  brought  about 
important  changed  conditions.  The  young 
men  qualified  for  enlistment  were  of  that  class 
greatly  needed  for  the  hardships  of  pioneer 
work  among  the  Saints,  and  such  a  condition, 
therefore,  made  the  exodus  of  the  Mormon 
people  across  the  plains  from  the  Missouri 
river  all  the  more  trying. 

President  Young,  with  the  other  lead- 
ers, began  at     once    to    raise    the     required 


78  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

number  of  companies.  There  were  not 
enough  young  men  then  at  Council  Bluffs 
to  respond  to  the  call.  He,  therefore,  on  a 
mounted  horse  with  a  few  others,  set  out  for 
Mt.  Pisgah,  that  from  among  the  people  there 
the  necessary  number  of  volunteers  might  be 
obtained.  The  sight  of  a  prophet  of  God  rid- 
ing over  the  hills  of  western  Iowa,  to  the  un- 
believer and  Christian  minister  must  have 
seemed  indeed  a  remarkable  and  somewhat 
ludicrous  situation.  It  is  perhaps  a  circum- 
stance wholly  unique  in  the  religious  history  of 
the  world.  Those  were  times  of  great  emer- 
gencies. Leaders  had  to  be  practical  men,  un- 
derstanding from  personal  experience  the 
work  at  hand,  and  having  the  ability  to  do 
whatever  came  to  hand.  It  was  a  peculiar 
quality  of  generalship,  which  required  unusu- 
al talents  and  a  genius  for  great  things. 

Naturally,  such  a  call  would  create  consid- 
erable confusion.  There  was  hurry  and  wor- 
ry. On  the  20th  of  July  the  first  companies 
started  or  set  out  for  their  march  down  the 
Missouri  to  Fort  Leavenworth.  John  R.  Mur- 
dock  enlisted  in  the  Mormon  Battalion  on  the 
16th  day  of  July,   1846.     From  that  date  it 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  79 

would  be  nearly  two  months  before  he  reached 
his  twentieth  birthday. 

This  divided  the  pioneers  into  two  groups. 
The  advance  body  of  the  Church  set  out  the  fol- 
lowing year  on  its  journey  for  Salt  Lake  Val- 
ley, and  the  Mormon  Battalion  was  to  reach 
the  same  objective  point  around  the  circuit  of 
what  are  now  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizo- 
na, California,  and  Nevada. 

From  the  detailed  account  of  these  two  pio- 
neer journeys  as  given  by  the  historians  of 
each,  it  is  quite  within  the  range  of  truth  to 
say  that  the  Battalion  had  the  greater  hard- 
ships to  endure.  As  time  goes  on,  the  details 
of  this  great  march  across  the  American  des- 
ert come  into  more  prominent  interest  and  are 
appreciated  more  and  more  by  those  valiant 
and  enduring  men  of  the  Mormon  Battalion. 

Of  the  march  from  Council  Bluffs  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  John  R.  Murdock  says :  "I 
bade  farewell  to  my  friends  and  people  and 
started  for  California.  In  the  beginning  the 
government  was  unable  to  supply  us  with  the 
necessary  cooking  utensils,  clothing,  etc.,  for 
the  campaign,  hence  our  cooking  was  very 
crude.    We  had  to  mix  our  bread  in  the  mouth 


80  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

of  a  flour  sack,  roll  our  dough  on  a  stick  and 
roast  it  by  the  fire  until  it  was  baked.  We 
broiled  our  meat  on  the  coals  and  made  our 
coffee  in  any  available  vessel.  In  this  way  we 
traveled  down  the  Missouri  river  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  miles. 
There  we  received  our  clothing,  blankets, 
knapsacks  and  all  other  equipments  necessary 
for  a  soldier's  kit;  we  also  received  here  our 
first  payment  of  eight  dollars  a  month.  Prep- 
arations were  then  made  to  commence  our 
march  across  the  plains  to  Santa  Fe.  I  was 
selected  to  drive  a  company  team  of  six  mules, 
all  wild  and  unbroken  for  use  except  one,  the 
saddle  mule.  In  driving  around  the  fort  one 
day  the  team  ran  away,  and  I  was  thrown  out, 
iand  the  wagon,  which  fortunately,  was  not 
loaded,  passed  over  my  body  and  very  nearly 
killed  me.  I  was  so  badly  hurt  that  I  had 
to  be  carried  to  camp  on  a  blanket  by  my 
comrades.  The  effects  of  that  accident  I  feel 
to  this  day.  After  remaining  in  Fort  Leav- 
enworth for  nineteen  days  we  commenced  the 
march.  I  was  then  able  to  drive  my  team. 
We  started  on  the  19th  of  August,  1846.'' 
After  reaching  Fort  Leavenworth  each  sold- 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  81 

ier  drew  $42.00,  his  clothing  money  for  the 
year.  Along  with  the  Mormon  Battalion  at 
that  time  some  of  the  elders  took  the  jour- 
ney preparatory  to  their  mission  to  Great 
Britain.  Much  of  the  money  paid  to  the 
soldiers  was  sent  by  them  to  their  families 
and  brethren  at  Council  Bluffs  for  the  pur- 
pose of  aiding  the  main  body  of  the  Church 
in  reaching  its  destination.  The  missionaries 
were  also  aided  by  the  liberality  of  the  soldiers 
in  making  their  way  to  the  mission  field.  It 
will,  from  these  circumstances,  be  seen  that 
the  condition  of  the  Mormon  Battalion,  when 
compared  with  oth^r  volunteers,  was  most 
unfortunate,  and  that  they  had  to  depend  upon 
themselves  for  the  means  necessary  to  supply 
them  comfortable  clothing  on  their  long  and 
hazardous  journey.  These  soldiers,  however, 
had  left  behind  them  either  wives  or  parents, 
and  cheerfully  gave  their  first  money  to  the 
support  of  those  who  were  comparatively 
helpless.  Nor  was  this  all.  From  Santa  Fe 
money  was  sent  back  to  Council  Bluffs  to 
sustain  the  families  of  the  soldiers  there. 
Such  an  expedition  as  they  were  setting  out 
upon  had  no  comparison  anywhere  in  history. 


82  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

The  country  over  which  they  were  passing, 
so  many  thousand  miles  was  almost  wholly 
uninhabited.  Unexplored  deserts  lay  before 
them.  Nor  had  they  any  knowledge  of  the 
nature  of  the  country,  its  vegetation  or  its 
climate.  True,  much  of  it  had  been  explored, 
but  knowledge  of  its  explorations  had  not 
been  widely  circulated.  The  leaders  had  some 
knowledge  of  certain  objective  points  and  of 
the  nature  of  the  country  that  lay  between 
them  and  these  forts. 

"It  was  eight  hundred  miles,"  says  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch,  "from  Fort  Leavenworth 
to  Santa  Fe,  and  through  a  very  wild  country, 
indeed.  Except  the  teamsters,  all  had  to  walk. 
There  was  much  suffering  on  account  of  the 
want  of  water  and  extreme  heat  in  a  desert 
country.  Being  foot-sore  we  found  the  march 
terribly  hard,  and  there  was  much  sickness 
from  the  change  of  water.  In  order  to  reach 
Santa  Fe  at  a  given  time  we  had  to  make  the 
last  hundred  miles  of  the  journey  by  a  forced 
march,  and  traveled  therefore  night  and  day. 
We  reached  Santa  Fe  on  the  10th  of  October 
1846." 

Something  of  the  heat  on  that  journey  may 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  83 

be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  the  thermometer 
at  Fort  Leavenworth  was  101  in  the  shade  and 
135  degrees  in  the  sun.  Another  circumstance 
was  distressing  to  the  soldiers,  and  that  was  the 
death  on  the  23rd  of  August  of  Captain  Allen. 
He  was  a  kind-hearted  man,  and  from  the  out- 
set won  the  confidence  and  good  will  of  the  Bat- 
talion. He  was  succeeded  later  by  Lieut.  A. 
J.  Smith,  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  men. 

The  first  part  of  the  journey  was  made 
measurably  safe  from  the  fact  that  on  the  11th 
of  September  the  Battalion  reached  the  Arkan- 
sas river  whose  banks  they  followed  for  about 
one  hundred  miles.  It  would  be  quite  natural 
for  such  a  body  of  men  to  find  petty  annoy- 
ances that  would  create  some  discontent.  Be- 
fore they  reached  their  first  objective  point 
and  on  the  16th  of  September  Captain  Higgins 
was  detailed  to  take  a  number  of  families  to 
the  Mexican  town  of  Pueblo.  This  circum- 
stance aroused  some  fear  that  there  might  be 
other  separations  and  the  Battalion  so  divided 
as  to  be  thrown  among  the  Missourians  who 
were  distasteful  as  well  as  hateful  to  them. 
Another  circumstance  of  a  more  serious  nature 
was  the  conduct  toward  the  soldiers  of  Doctor 


84  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

George  P.  Sanderson,  a  Missourian  physician, 
to  whom  was  intrusted  the  health  of  the  men. 
In  him  they  had  no  confidence  and  were  fully 
assured  that  he  had  even  administered  poison  in 
the  medicine  which  he  distributed  among  them. 
They  were  so  sure,  that  many  of  them  refused 
to  take  his  medicine  and  preferred  to  endure 
the  sickness  from  which  they  were  suffering 
rather  than  to  endanger  their  lives  at  his  hands. 
George  Sanderson,  like  hundreds  of  others,  is 
known  to  history  only  through  the  annals  of 
the  Church.  He  never  suspected  that  the  char- 
acter by  which  he  would  be  known  in  genera- 
tions to  come  is  the  character  given  to  him  by 
the  Mormon  people  That,  indeed,  is  a  remark- 
able circumstance  in  the  history  of  the  Mormon 
Church. 

Before  leaving  Santa  Fe  for  Southern  Cali- 
fornia, those  considered  in  an  unfit  condition 
to  endure  the  hardships  that  were  sure  to  come 
to  the  Battalion  were  taken  to  Pueblo  for  the 
winter  where  they  arrived  on  the  17th  day  of 
November,  requiring  thirty  days  for  the  march. 
John  R.  Murdock  was  among  those  who  took 
up  that  long  and  memorable  journey  of  eleven 
hundred  miles  across  the  southern  deserts  to 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  85 

the  Pacific  Ocean.  At  that  season  of  the  year 
they  were  in  the  highlands  of  the  Colorado  and 
New  Mexico.  They  were  insufficiently  clad 
to  endure  the  cold  with  any  degree  of  comfort. 
They  had  not  long  left  Santa  Fe  before  it 
became  necessary  to  send  some  of  their  teams 
back.  Those  who  returned  encountered  un- 
usual hardships.  They  were  equipped  with  one 
wagon  and  four  yoke  of  oxen  and  rations  suf- 
ficient for  only  five  days.  The  distance  to  be 
traveled  by  them  on  their  return  was  three  hun- 
dred miles.  This  was  another  parting  which 
the  soldiers  of  the  Battalion  regretted,  and  the 
parting  scenes  were  very  affecting.  John  R. 
Murdock  was  still  among  those  who  made  the 
march  to  California.  He  says:  "We  passed 
through  a  wild,  unsettled  country  whose  only 
inhabitants  were  hostile  Indians.  Provisions 
were  scare  at  Santa  Fe,  so  we  were  not  well 
supplied  with  food  at  the  beginning  of  this  long 
march.  The  country  was  rough,  rugged,  and 
mountainous.  Water  was  to  be  found  only  at 
long  intervals  and  there  was  consequently  great 
suffering  among  the  men.  We  were  put  on 
half  rations  and  later,  on  third  rations  during 
the  journey.    The  sheep  and  cattle  driven  along 


S6  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

for  fresh  meat  became  so  poor  that  they  had  to 
be  killed  and  taken  as  rations, — a  sorry  lot  of 
stuff  it  was.  The  rations  were  weighed  out  to 
us,  and  two  or  three  little  Mexican  sheep  could 
be  hung  at  once  on  a  pair  of  hang  balances." 

The  parts  of  the  country  through  which  they 
passed  had  large  herds  of  wild  cattle,  many  of 
which  were  killed  and  used  for  food  by  the  Bat- 
talion. These  cattle,  however,  in  places  proved 
themselves  dangerous  to  the  march  of  the  men. 
Sometimes  the  bulls  would  lead  in  a  furious 
stampede,  and  it  became  necessary  for  the  Bat- 
talion to  guard  itself  by  shooting  down  the  cat- 
tle when  they  could,  and  by  using  every  pos- 
sible means  of  keeping  out  of  these  great  wild 
cattle  rushes.  Along  the  road  down  the  river 
San  Pedro,  the  attacks  became  quite  frequent. 
At  one  time  there  was  what  the  Battalion  boys 
termed  a  "bull  fight."  Two  men  were  severe- 
ly injured,  one  mule  was  gored  to  death  while 
others  were  knocked  down  and  hurt.  "I  was 
engaged  in  the  bull  fight  and  was  in  all  the 
forced  marches  across  the  desert,"  says  John 
R.  Murdock,  in  giving  an  account  of  that  jour- 
ney. 

Those  familiar  with  the  character  of  south- 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  87 

ern  Arizona,  especially  from  Tuscon  to  the 
coast,  will  realize  something  of  the  hardships 
to  be  endured  in  crossing  the  deserts  at  that 
early  period  in  our  history.  The  Battalion 
reached  the  San  Luis  Rey  mission  on  the  27th 
of  January,1847,  and  the  San  Diego  mission  on 
the  29th.  ''I  do  not  believe/'  says  this  young 
Battalion  boy,  "that  the  parallel  to  that  march 
to  the  coast  is  on  record  when  all  circumstances 
are  considered.  My  usual  weight  was  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pounds  and  it  was  only  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  when  we  reached  the  coast. 
During  the  journey,  everything,  even  the  hide 
and  parts  of  the  entrails  of  the  animals  were 
used  for  food.  The  teams  became  so  jaded 
that  we  undertook  to  raft  a  portion  of  the  pro- 
visions down  the  Gila  river.  The  food  was  all 
lost  in  the  river,  thus  greatly  lessening  the  al- 
ready scant  supply.  We  obtained  some  wheat, 
corn,  and  beans  from'  the  Pima  Indians,  a  tribe 
that  lived  along  the  Gila  river.  Upon  the 
southern  route  there  were  some  deserts  from 
seventy  to  ninety  miles  in  extent  and  not  a 
drop  of  water  was  to  be  found  on  them.  We 
had  quite  an  experience  in  crossing  the  Color- 
ado river  over  which  the  men  had  to  carry  most 


88  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

of  the  supplies  and  wade  the  river  up  to  their 
arm  pits.  From  the  Colorado  to  Warner's,  the 
first  settlement  in  California,  it  was  about  two 
hundred  and  thirty  miles,  and  there  were  very 
few  watering  places.  When  we  reached  that 
place  we  obtained  plenty  of  fresh,  fat  beef,  but 
had  nothing  else  except  coffee.  We  had  had  no 
flour  for  weeks.  When  we  reached  the  coast 
we  obtained  some  provisions,  but  still  no  flour." 
That  his  estimation  of  the  difficulties  of  such 
a  perilous  journey  was  well  within  the  truth,  is 
fully  attested  by  the  statement  of  their  com- 
manding officer.  Col.  P.  St.  George  Cook,  who 
writes  as  follows : 

"Headquarters,  Mission  of  San  Diego, 

January  30,  1847. 

"Lieutenant  Colonel  commanding  congratu- 
lates the  Battalion  on  its  safe  arrival  on  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the  conclusion 
of  its  march  of  over  two  thousand  miles.  His- 
tory may  be  searched  in  vain  for  an  equal 
march  of  infantry ;  nine-tenths  of  it  through  a 
wilderness,  where  nothing  but  savages  and 
wild  beasts  are  found,  or  deserts  where,  for 
want  of  water,  there  is  no    living    creature. 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  89 

There,  with  almost  hopeless  labor,  we  have 
dug  deep  wells,  which  the  future  traveler  will 
enjoy.  Without  a  guide  who  had  traversed 
them,  we  have  ventured  into  trackless  prairies, 
where  water  was  not  found  for  several 
marches.  With  crowbar  and  pick-ax  in  hand 
we  have  worked  our  way  over  mountains, 
which  seemed  to  defy  aught  save  the  wild  goat, 
and  hewed  a  passage  through  a  chasm  of  liv- 
ing rock,  more  narrow  than  our  wagons.  To 
bring  these  first  wagons  to  the  Pacific  we 
have  preserved  the  strength  of  the  mules  by 
herding  them  over  large  tracts,  which  you 
have  laboriously  guarded  without  loss." 

During  the  sojourn  of  the  Battalion  in  the 
San  Luis  Rey  and  San  Diego  mission  the  sol- 
diers did  not  relax  their  energies,  but  set  them- 
selves at  work  building  houses  and  giving  an 
air  of  life  to  everything  about  them.  "My 
company,''  he  says,  "was  stationed  at  San  Luis 
Rey,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  below 
Los  Angeles.  At  the  latter  place  the  other 
four  companies  of  the  Battalion  were  stationed. 
Later,  Company  B,  the  one  to  which  I  belong- 
ed, was  sent  to  San  Diego,  about  fifty  miles 


90  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

further  south.  While  in  that  country  there 
grew  up  quite  an  extreme  practice  among  the 
soldiers  of  hunting  and  purchasing  wild  horses, 
and  some  of  them  won  for  themselves  a  rep- 
utation in  their  successful  efforts  in  riding 
them.  Company  B  remained  in  San  Diego 
until  about  the  first  of  July,  1847,  when  it  left 
for  Los  Angeles  where  it  joined  the  other  com- 
panies of  the  Battalion. 

Some  persuasion  was  offered  to  induce  the 
soldiers  to  re-enlist,  but  the  great  majority  of 
them  understood  very  well  that  they  were  need- 
ed by  the  Saints  who  w^ere  then  on  their  way 
across  the  plains.  They  were  mustered  out  on 
the  16th  of  July,  1847,  just  one  year  from  the 
day  they  enlisted.  Preparations  were  immedi- 
ately begun  for  their  homeward  journey.  There 
were  two  routes  open  to  them,  the  southern 
and  the  northern.  It  was  now  mid-summer 
and  the  unexplored  deserts  of  southern  Cali- 
fornia and  Nevada  were  evidently  thought  to 
be  dangerous  for  the  return  journey.  The 
northern  route  was  therefore  selected,  and  after 
appointing  officers,  the  Battalion  made  its  way 
in  the  .direction  of  the  Sacramento  Valley. 

From  Sacramento  they  crossed    the   Sierra 


IN  THE  MORMON  BATTALION  91 

Nevada  mountains  and  reached  the  head-wat- 
ers of  the  Truckee  river.  While  in  this  part  of 
Nevada,  they  met  Samuel  Brannan  who  had 
taken  a  company  of  Saints  by  water  to  Cali- 
fornia. Brannan  gave  the  soldiers  a  very  dis- 
couraging account  of  the  conditions  in  Salt 
Lake  Valley,  where,  he  said,  there  was  a  heavy 
frost  every  month  in  the  year.  The  climate,  he 
said,  was  so  dry  that  nothing  could  be  raised 
without  irrigation,  and  the  water  was  so  cold 
that  it  would  freeze  the  seeds  that  were  put 
into  the  ground.  Captain  James  Brown,  how- 
ever, who  met  them  about  the  same  time, 
brought  word  from  the  Twelve  Apostles  that 
those  who  had  not  means  for  their  support  had 
better  return  to  California  for  work,  and  com"e 
to  the  valleys  later  on.  John  R.  Murdock, 
however,  forged  his  way  along  by  the  way  of 
Humboldt,  Goose  Creek,  and  Fort  Hall,  which 
was  then  situated  on  Snake  river  about  two 
hundred  miles  north  of  Salt  Lake  City.  Here, 
he  and  his  comrades  obtained  some  provisions. 
They  paid  fifty  cents  a  pound  for  bacon,  and 
twenty-five  cents  a  pound  for  flour.  Leaving 
Fort  Hall  they  crossed  Bear  river  and  reached 
Salt  Lake  City,  October  12th,  1847. 


92  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 


CHAPTER  V 

PIONEERS    IN    SALT    LAKE   VALLEY 

The  members  of  the  Mormon  Battalion  *who 
came  in  that  year  increased  the  number  now 
located  in  the  "Old  Fort"  to  something  like 
eighteen  hundred.  The  son,  John  R.,  found 
his  father  and  family  who  had  only  a  short 
time  before  arrived  in  the  valley.  The  vicis- 
situdes of  the  father  had  been  those  common 
to  the  Latter-day  Saints  in  general.  After 
the  death  of  John's  mother,  the  father  mar- 
ried in  1836  Amaranda  Turner  in  the  state  of 
New  York.  This  wife  he  took  with  him  to 
Missouri,  where,  after  about  a  year's  residence 
in  that  state  she  died,  leaving  no  children. 
In  1837,  the  father  married  Electa  Allen,  by 
whom  he  had  three  children,  Gideon,  Hyrum, 
and  Rachel.  This  third  wife  died  in  Nauvoo  in 
1845.  Before  starting  West  he  married  a  fourth 
wife  with  whom  he  journeyed  across  the  plains 
to  Salt  Lake  City.  This  wife,however,  survived 
her  husband  but  never  bore  to  him  any  children. 
When,  therefore,  the  son  reached  Salt  Lake 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY       93 

City,  he  found  his  father,  the  last  wife,  and  the 
three  children  of  Electa  Murdock. 

As  the  "Old  Fort''  was  the  home  of  the  pio- 
neers during  the  summer  of  1847,the  Murdock 
family  lived  there.  The  son,  ever  dutiful  to  the 
obligations  he  felt  toward  his  father,  began  at 
once  to  make  his  first  home  in  the  valleys. 
•*We  made  adobes  and  built  a  little  house  in  the 
"Old  Fort/'  I  went  into  Red  Butte  and  ob- 
tained timber  to  finish  the  house  and  got 
some  fencing  and  firewood  for  the  winter.  I 
also  made  further  preparation  by  getting 
forage  for  the  stock." 

His  life  that  winter  in  the  "Old  Fort"was  re- 
lieved of  those  intense  hardships  through  which 
he  had  passed  in  the  deserts  of  the  South.  It 
was  a  mild  winter  and  the  Saints  had  such  so- 
cial fellowship  and  pastime  as  to  give  some  re- 
lief to  a  situation  that  was  difficult  in  the  ex- 
treme. Much  of  the  winter  was  favorable  to 
plowing,  so  that  there  were  opportunities  for 
a  busy  life.  In  the  canyons  and  on  these  arid, 
parched  lands  might  be  seen  the  active  work 
of  Utah's  pioneers. 

"In  the  following  spring,"  John  R.  Murdock 
says,    "I   took  up  a  piece  of  property  in  Mill 


94  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

Creek  near  Neff 's  mill.  I  built  a  log  house  and 
father's  family  moved  up  there.  I  brought  a 
one-half  bushel  of  wheat  all  the  way  from'  Cali- 
fornia with  me.  This^  I  planted,  and  reaped 
from  it  about  ten  bushels  of  wheat.  This,  with 
the  small  quantity  of  immatured  corn  which 
we  had  raised.constituted  the  next  year's  supply 
of  breadstuff  for  the  family." 

When  the  necessity  of  reserving  all  the  seed 
possible  for  another  year's  planting  is  consid- 
ered, it  will  be  seen  that  the  food  supply  in  the 
Murdock  home  was  indeed  scanty.  However, 
the  supply,  small  as  it  was,  was  enjoyed  with 
feelings  of  gratitude  over  the  miraculous  man- 
ner in  which  it  had  been  obtained.  It  was  the 
cricket  year  in  the  history  of  Utah.  The  Saints 
had  watched  their  grain  fields  go  down  before 
the  devouring  pest  and  wondered  what  was  to 
become  of  them.  They  had  already  an  insuf- 
ficient supply  to  last  till  harvest  time.  The 
Pioneers  who  reached  the  Valley  in  July,  1847, 
broke  up  some  ground,  did  some  planting,  but 
of  course,  had  no  harvest.  When,  therefore, 
the  crickets  began  to  devour  the  crops,  the 
Saints  must  have  felt  themselves  doomed  to 
starvation.    There  was  nothing  to  support  their 


PIONEER  L\  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY       95 

courage  or  to  offer  hope  but  that  faith  in  God 
which  they  had  learned  to  value  in  their  stren- 
uous experiences  of  the  past.  They  never  lost 
the  conviction  that  they  were  God's  people.  Re- 
liance on  Him  w^ould  bring  them  some  relief 
they  knew\  How  it  w^ould  come  they  could  not 
imagine.  To  them,  it  was  a  new,  a  queer  exper- 
ience. It  is  remarkable  that  in  all  their  history 
in  those  early  days  no  two  experiences  were 
alike,  except,  it  may  be  said  that  re- 
liance on  God  and  his  deliverance  constituted 
an  experience.  In  every  case  the  circum- 
stance was  unlike  everything  that  had  gone 
before  it.  They  had  now  a  new  manifesta- 
tion of  God's  providence.  Sea-gulls  came 
in  great  swarms  and  devoured  the  crickets,  and 
saved  to  them  something  like  half  a  crop.  It 
was  a  remarkable  experience  in  the  life  of  a 
people, — an  experience  which  the  men  and  wo- 
men who  went  through  it  had  to  confirm  their 
faith  and  treasure  up  as  a  beautiful  remem- 
brance in  after  life.  It  was  one  of  the  choice 
souvenirs  in  the  life  of  John  R.  Murdock.  He 
proudly  adds  his  testimony  to  that  of  the  oth- 
ers: "I  wish  to  say  that  1  experienced  the 
cricket  ravages  on  the  crops  of  all  kinds  in  this 


%  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

Valley.  The  insects  came  in  countless  num- 
bers. I  witnessed  the  phenomenon  of  the  gulls 
coming  and  destroying  them.  We  all  regarded 
this  as  very  miraculous." 

There  was  nothing  spectactular  in  the  exper- 
iences which  followed  the  harvest  of  1848. 
This  scanty  provision  meant  distress,  and  in  the 
quietude  of  the  home  men  and  women  were  put 
to  those  severe  tests  that  require  fortitude  and 
faith.  It  was  that  silent  endurance  which,  af- 
ter all,  is  the  strongest  test  in  the  character  of 
men  and  women.  The  story  of  how  they  lived 
has  been  told  again  and  again.  It  is  a  grand 
story,  even  though  a  sad  one.  "We  had  to  dig 
thistles  and  sego  roots  and  every  kind  of  weed 
that  could  be  made  into  greens,  and  even  this 
kind  of  food,  too,"  he  says  "was  very  scarce. 
At  this  time  father's  family  consisted  of  his 
son  Gideon,  his  son  George,  and  two  adopted 
daughters."  It  was  a  large  family  for  such  a 
meagre  supply,  but  they  like  others,  bravely 
made  the  most  of  a  trying  situation,  which  was 
not  at  all  hew  to  the  young  man  who  had  just 
undergone  the  ordeals  of  the  Mormon  Battal- 
ion. 

The  farm'  work  of  1848  did  not  constitute 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY       97 

all  the  summer's  labor  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch.  Pres.  Young  was  on  his  way  from  Win- 
ter Quarters  to  Salt  Lake  Valley.  The  Pre- 
sidency of  the  Church  had  been  organized  on 
December  27th,  1847.  It  consisted  of  Brig- 
ham  Young,  Heber  C.  Kimball,  and  Willard 
Richards.  These  leaders  started  out  from  Elk 
Horn  early  in  June  of  1848.  The  first  com- 
pany, consisting  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  souls  and  having  three  hundred  and  nine- 
ty-seven wagons,  was  led  by  Pres.  Young; 
the  second,  with  six  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  souls  and  two  hundred  and  twenty-six 
wagons,  by  H.  C.  Kimball;  the  third,  with 
five  hundred  and  twenty-six  souls  and  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-nine  wagons,  by  Willard  Rich- 
ards. Willard  Richards  had  been  detained  by 
the  misfortunes  that  overtook  his  company,  but 
Pres.  Young  was  closely  followed  by  Heber  C. 
Kimball  and  made  good  progress. 

They  needed  aid,  and  competent  young  men 
were  required  to  take  fresh  teams  and  go  out 
to  meet  these  companies  whose  arduous  jour- 
ney had  told  upon  man  and  beast  alike.  These 
pioneers  now  enroute  were  made  up  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  In  the  selection  of  aid 
7 


98  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

for  them,  it  is  quite  natural  that  John  R.  Mur- 
dock,  whose  experiences  were  so  favorable  and 
whose  ability  in  such  trying  places  had  been 
thoroughly  tested,  should  be  called.  He  took 
his  team,  therefore,  and  under  the  Captaincy 
of  Ira  Eldredge  went  back  with  others  to  meet 
Pres.  Young.  They  made  roads  through  Par- 
ley's canyon  and  Park  down  Silver  creek  in 
order  to  intercept  the  other  road  at  the  mouth 
of  Echo  canyon.-  They  came  upon  Pres. 
Young  and  company  at  the  head  of  the  Sweet- 
water, about  three  hundred  miles  from  Salt 
Lake.  They  also  met  Pres.  Kimball's  company 
which  was  close  in  the  rear. 

John  R.  Murdock  naturally  felt  some  inter- 
est in  the  second  company  where  he  met  his 
old  time  benefactor,  Father  Lott,  and  his 
daughter  Almira,  who  was  awaiting  an  op- 
portunity to  fulfil  an  engagement  of  matri- 
mony. The  two,  therefore,  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  rehearse  the  strange  and  wonderful 
experiences  they  had  both  undergone  since 
their  parting  in  Iowa. 

In  those  trying  times,  the  renewed  associa- 
tions of  old  friends  must  have  afforded  a  joy 
indescribable.    Toil,  anxiety,  hardships,  and 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY       99 

suffering  created  a  brotherhood  that  those 
who  have  known  naught  else  but  prosperity 
could  hardly  understand,  much  less  appre- 
ciate. There  developed  within  those  early  pio- 
neers a  brotherly  love,  a  friendship,  a  hospital- 
ity that  was  indeed  beautiful;  and  the  friend- 
ship of  those  early  days  left  little  opportunity 
for  criticism  and  distrust.  Those  who  remem-. 
bered  the  deep  friendships  of  Utah's  pioneers, 
and  the  generous  hospitality  of  those  early  days 
know  something  of  the  fruits  of  hardship 
which  gave  rise  to  such  splendid  results.  The 
young  man,  with  others  of  the  relief  party, 
loaded  their  teams  from'  President  Young's 
train  and  accompanied  him  into  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  which  they  reached  on  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1848. 

The  arrival  of  the  First  Presidency  of  the 
Church  gave  new  life  to  the  Saints  in  the  Val- 
ley. On  the  8th  of  October  a  general  confer- 
ence was  held  in  the  old  Bowery  which  had 
been  built  in  the  Fort.  The  new  Stake  Presi- 
dency was  organized,  consisting  of  Charles  C. 
Rich  as  president  and  John  Young  and  Erastus 
Snow  as  counselors. 

The  new-comers  neither  had  nor  brought 


100  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

with  them  sufficient  food  for  the  winter;  and 
the  fact  that  the  crickets  had  destroyed  one- 
half  of  the  crop  of  the  Saints  that  year  made 
the  outlook  for  the  winter  of  1848-9  a  dreary 
one,  indeed.  The  Saints,  however,  had  taken 
all  available  means  to  provide  every  comfort 
possible,  however  meagre.  The  young  man 
cut  hay,  hauled  it,  and  supplied  wood  for  the 
needs  of  his  father's  family,  and  late  that  year 
engaged  himself  to  work  for  John  P.  Barnard, 
who  had  taken  up  a  farm  between  what  is 
now  known  as  Centerville  and  Farmington. 
This  farm  had  to  be  fenced,  and  young  Mur- 
dock  was  sent  to  North  Mill  Creek  to  chop 
timber  for  that  purpose   during  the  winter. 

That  winter  is  well  remembered  by  the  ear- 
liest settlers  as  one  of  the  severest  in  the  his- 
tory of  Utah.  Chopping  timber,  therefore, 
"waist  deep  in  snow,''  as  he  says,  was  in  no 
sense  a  comfortable  occupation.  The  hardships 
of  that  winter  was  likewise  one  that  tried  his 
powers  of  endurance,  but  the  young  man  kept 
faithfully  at  his  post  and  after  the  farm  work 
was  finished  his  employer,  Mr.  Barnard, 
wished  him  to  rent  it  from  him.  This  John  R. 
consented  to  do,  and  began  at  once  to  break  up 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY      101 

the  new  ground.  He  was  thorough  in  his 
work  and  therefore  successful.  He  planted 
some  wheat,  a  considerable  amount  of  corn, 
and  reaped  a  good  harvest  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1849.  This  enabled  him  to  supply  him- 
self and  to  assist  his  father. 

John  R.  Murdock  was  also  a  witness  of  an- 
other of  those  remarkable  interpositions  in  fa- 
vor of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  which  they  have 
always  regarded  as  divine.  During  the  winter 
of  1848-9  the  excessive  cold  and  short  rations 
naturally  created  a  spirit  of  gloom.  The  Saints 
were  in  need  of  comfort  and  encouraging 
words  to  buoy  them  up  in  those  days  when  they 
were  so  beset  by  misgivings  as  to  their  future 
ability  to  succeed  in  their  newly  chosen  home. 
At  one  of  the  meetings  at  which  the  half- 
starved  and  poorly-clad  Saints  had  gathered, 
Heber  C.  Kimball,  in  one  of  his  prophetic  out- 
bursts, declared  to  the  people  that  states' 
goods,  food,  and  raiment  to  supply  their  needs 
would  soon  be  sold  in  Salt  Lake  City  cheaper 
than  they  were  sold  in  St.  Louis.  How  could 
such  a  thing  be !  Some  of  the  leaders  were 
openly  skeptical  over  such  remarks  whose  ful- 
filment was  wholly  beyond  the  comprehension 


102  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

of  the  people.  But  the  prophesy  was  ful- 
filled, as  the  eastern  merchants  had  loaded  large 
numbers  of  teams  with  merchandise  which 
they  were  transporting  to  California  in  order 
to  provide  the  miners  there  with  merchandise. 
The  excitement,  however,  became  so  strong 
when  they  reached  Salt  Lake  City  in  the  fall  of 
1849  that  they  abandoned  their  merchandise  in 
order  to  reach  the  gold  fields  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment.  They  sold  merchandise  and 
teams  at  whatever  price  they  could  get,  and 
made  any  sacrifice  necessary  to  get  fresh  ani- 
mals. The  story  of  this  relief  to  the  Saints  is 
told  in  a  few  brief  words  by  John  R.  Murdock : 
"For  one  good  mule  I  received  three  yoke  of 
good  oxen  and  a  new  wagon.  This  provided 
me  with  a  team  so  that  I  could  go  right  on  and 
make  a  home  for  my  wife." 

This  unexpected  supply  of  all  sorts  of  mer- 
chandise— merchandise  which,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, was  selected  for  the  needs  of  the 
miners  in  California,  was  peculiarly  helpful  to 
the  Saints.  It  set  them  up  in  house-keeping. 
The  young  man  Murdock  was,  therefore,  in 
circumstances  favorable  to  the  responsibilities 
of  married  life,  which  he  entered  into  with 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY      103 

Miss  Almira  Lott,  on  the  12th  day  of  Novem- 
ber, 1849,  at  the  Lott  home,  which  stood  on 
the  corner  now  occupied  by  the  Knutsford  Ho- 
tel. The  ceremony  was  performed  by  Heber 
C.  Kimball.  The  new  prosperity  of  that  year 
made  it  possible  to  have  a  wedding  supper  and 
a  good  social  pastime. 

The  city  was  extended  in  1848,  and  all  the 
land  lying  south  of  the  Fort  came  rapidly  un- 
der cultivation  during  the  summer  of  1849.  A 
large  field  fence  had  been  constructed  so  as  to 
separate  the  farm  lands  near  the  mountains 
on  the  east  from  the  pasture  lands  of  the  Jor- 
dan on  the  west.  Young  Murdock,  some  time 
after  his  marriage,  moved  to  the  old  Church 
Farm,  which  is  now  known  as  Forest  Dale. 
His  early  experiences  in  Missouri  and  Illinois 
and  his  success  on  the  Barnard  Farm  naturally 
made  him  a  desirable  man  for  an  important 
trust,  and  it  was  therefore  quite  natural  that 
Father  Lott  should  want  him  to  assist  in  the 
development  of  this  large  and  important  farm. 

Before,  however,  he  entered  upon  his  farm 
work  south  of  the  city,  he  was  called  to  par- 
ticipate in  one  of  those  early  Indian  wars 
which  the  Saints  of  those  early  times  had  to 


104  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

meet  for  the  preservation  of  their  stock  and  of 
their  lives.  John  Higbee  had  led  a  number  of 
the  Saints  to  Provo.  They  crossed  the  Provo 
river  and  settled  what  was  known  in  early 
times  there,  ''the  old  Fort  Field."  During  the 
winter  of  1849-50  the  Ute  Indians  made  an  at- 
tack upon  these  settlers,  and  he  was  called 
from'  his  home  at  the  old  Church  Farm  to  go 
to  Provo  that  he  might  take  part  in  the  defense 
of  the  people  there  against  the  attacks  of  the 
Ute  Indians,  who  had  driven  off  a  considerable 
number  of  stock  and  were  constantly  menacing 
the  people. 

General  D.  H.  Wells  was  in  command,  and 
young  Murdock  belonged  to  the  company  of 
General  Robert  T.  Burton.  Soon  after  their 
arrival,  there  was  some  skiiTnishing  with  the 
Indians,  and  after  an  effort  of  a  day  or  two 
to  dislodge  them,  an  order  was  made  to  cap- 
ture a  log  house  in  the  vicinity  of  where  the 
Indians  were  located.  This  house  was  taken 
at  considerable  risk.  A  number  of  horses  were 
shot,  and  two  men  were  wounded  on  their  ad- 
vance upon  it.  Young  Murdock's  horse  was 
shot  through  the  neck  and  fell  just  as  he 
reached  the  house.    The  ball  missed  the  young 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY      105 

man's  head  by  only  a  few  inches,  as  he  had  just 
dismounted  and  was  standing  for  a  moment  by 
his  horse.  After  crawling  into  the  house, 
which  was  done  at  considerable  risk,  they  were 
fairly  well  protected.  The  firing  was  kept  up 
for  some  time  between  the  Indians  and  the  men 
on  the  inside  of  the  cabin.  In  this  skirmish  one 
man,  Joseph  Higbee,  was  killed,  and  several 
others  were  severely  wounded.  The  men  re- 
mained in  the  house  until  after  dark,  and  then 
stole  away  to  their  camps.  During  the  night, 
it  is  said,  the  Indians  took  some  of  the  horses 
and  went  to  the  mountains.  The  men,  how- 
ever, followed  them  to  Spanish  Fork,  where 
some  of  the  Indians  were  overtaken  and  a 
number  of  them  killed.  This  fight  took  place 
in  February,  1850. 

The  gold  excitement  in  California  caused  a 
constant  stream  of  emigration  through  Salt 
Lake  City  to  the  Pacific  coast  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1850.  Those  who  reached  the  Valley 
somewhat  late  in  the  season  were,  of  course, 
extremely  anxious  to  hasten  their  journey  and 
cross  the  Sierra  Nevada  before  the  cold  set  in. 
Here  they  desired  to  secure  new  outfits,  for 
which  they  were  ready  to  make  almost  any 


106  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

exchange.  John  R.  Mudock  was  instinctively 
a  lover  of  good  horses  and  cattle.  His  experi- 
ences with  horses  had  made  him  not  only  skil- 
ful in  the  use  of  them,  but  a  splendid  judge  of 
a  good  animal.  He  w^as,  therefore,  just  the 
right  kind  of  a  man  to  avail  himself  of  the  ex- 
cellent opportunities  the  emigrants  afforded  in 
horse  trading.  He  knew  not  only  the  kind  of 
animal  the  gold-seekers  wanted,  but  his  judg- 
ment indicated  at  once  the  most  desirable  ani- 
mals they  had  to  exchange.  The  fact  was,  in 
plain  English,  he  was  a  good  horse-trader.  Of 
the  summer  of  1850  he  says :  "My  means  were 
limited,  and  this  trading  gave  me  a  start  in  life 
by  which  I  could  take  care  of  myself  and  fam- 
ily." 

His  stay  at  the  Forest  Dale  farm  was  not  of 
long  duration.  Father  Lott  died  July,  1850, 
and  was  buried  in  what  is  known  as  the  Salt 
Lake  cemetery.  His  tombstone  of  native  red 
sandstone  was  the  first  erected  in  that  City  of 
the  Dead.  "Father  Lott,''  as  he  was  familiarly 
known  in  his  family,  was  a  man  who  evidently 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  Church  leaders, 
as  he  was  trusted  both  by  Joseph  Smith  and 
Brigham  Young    with  their  leading  farming 


PIONEER  IN  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY      107 

operations.  Li  December,  1850,  young  Mur- 
dock  left  the  farm  and  lived  some  time  with 
his  wife's  family  at  their  home  on  the  Knuts- 
ford  corner.  This  left  him'  somewhat  at  sea, 
and  he  therefore  began  to  look  around  for 
some  place  where  he  might  cast  his  lot  and 
make  a  home.  His  lot  had  been  cast  a  great 
many  times,  and  his  feelings  respecting  the 
permanency  of  home  could  not  have  been  very 
strong,  in  view  of  the  rapid  and  radical 
changes  that  came  to  his  life  from  the  days 
of  his  infancy.  Thus  far  he  had  been  trained 
in  the  school  of  emergencies  and  was  always 
ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  respond  to  duty's 
call. 


108  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 


CHAPTER  VI 

EARLY   LIFE   IN   LEHI 

''Early  in  the  spring  of  1851/'  says  John  R. 
Murdock,  ''I  took  my  family  and  household  ef- 
fects and  moved  to  Lehi  and  commenced  work 
on  what  was  really  my  first  home.  In  1850 
my  father  went  on  a  mission  to  Australia,  and 
was  gone  over  three  years.  It  was  the  opening 
of  a  mission  in  that  country.  He  went  as  far 
as  California  with  an  ox-team,  with  Rich  and 
Lyman's  companies  of  emigrants.  I  helped 
take  care  of  his  family  during  his  absence." 

During  the  fall  of  1850  there  was  a  general 
movement  for  the  colonization  of  the  leading 
towns  of  Utah  Valley.  The  location  of  these 
towns  was  governed  by  the  streams  of  water 
which  flowed  from  the  mountains.  This  move- 
ment was,  of  course,  attracting  the  attention 
of  those  who  needed,and  were  therefore  seek- 
ing,new  homes.  The  choice  lands  immediately 
south  of  Salt  Lake  City  had  been  generally  se- 
lected, and  the  farms  in  the  Salt  Lake  Valley 
by  this  time  were  growing  so  in  value  that 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  109 

men  without  means  could  not  purchase  them. 
Young  Murdock,  with  two  of  his  brothers-in- 
law  therefore  set  out  for  Lehi,  which  at  that 
time  was  perhaps  not  so  attractive  as  some  of 
the  other  settlements,  because  of  its  meager 
supply  of  water.  However,  young  Murdock 
there  secured  forty  acres  of  land,  which  he 
commenced  at  once  to  cultivate. 

"The  first  work  on  my  farm  in  Lehi  was  to 
take  the  w^ater  from  Srping  Creek  by  means 
of  a  ditch  and  dam.  I  then  began  to  break  up 
the  new  land  and  to  put  in  a  crop.  I  built  a 
log  house  down  by  Utah  Lake,  together  with 
other  settlers.  Later  we  took  out  a  canal  from' 
American  Fork  canyon  and  brought  water 
across  the  bench.  This  was  at  that  time,  per- 
haps, the  most  extensive  canal  work  that  had 
been  made.  The  undertaking  was  considerable 
because  of  the  distance  over  which  the  water 
had  to  be  taken,  but  the  soil  in  and  about  Lehi 
was  rich  and,  therefore,  inviting."  "From  the 
first,'^  he  says,  "there  was  a  continual  stream 
of  new  settlers  pouring  into  Lehi,  and  as  time 
went  on,  the  Indians  became  very  troublesome 
to  the  people.  We  all  had  to  move  into  a 
square  fort  and  guard  our  stock  night  and  day 


110  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

against  their  encroachments.  Some  time  aftei 
this  we  incorporated  as  a  city.  In  a  most  un- 
expected and  rather  singular  manner  I  became 
one  of  the  first  mayors  of  Lehi  City.  It  came 
about  in  this  way.  As  it  usually  happens,  there 
are  two  parties  concerned  in  the  election  of  city 
officers.  The  party  in  power  took  what  I  re-  ^ 
garded  as  rather  an  improper  course,  and  I 
arose  in  the  meeting  and  undertook  to  vindicate 
the  weaker  party,  with  no  thought  whatever 
of  its  resulting  in  my  election  as  mayor,  and 
without  any  effort  on  my  part.  However,  it 
seemed  that  I  was  the  choice  of  the  people.'' 

John  Murdock  was  naturally  a  leader  among 
men.  He  had  strong  convictions,  and  better 
still,  he  always  had  the  courage  to  express 
them.  His  experience  and  superior  judgment 
naturally  gave  him  a  pre-eminence  among  his 
fellow  men.  It  was  not  at  all  strange  that  he 
should  be  elected  one  of  the  first  mayors  of 
Lehi  City. 

During  the  early  days  of  his  residence  there, 
the  Indian  troubles  came  to  the  people  of  Lehi. 
Their  homes  and  cattle  were  valuable  in  those 
times,  and  perhaps  the  principal  source  of 
ready  money.    As  the  thieving  propensities  of 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  111 

the  Indians  manifested  themselves,  protective 
measures  had  to  be  adopted.  Of  these  times  he 
says :  "The  Indians  again  became  very  trou- 
blesome at  the  south  end  of  the  lake,  and  we 
sent  a  party  of  men  to  gather  up  the  stock  on 
that  range  which  belonged  to  our  people.  They 
had  succeeded  in  collecting  the  stock  and 
stopped  to  eat  their  supper,  when  the  Indians 
suddenly  came  upon  them  and  killed  three  of 
their  men,  Cousins,  Catlin,  and  George  Winn. 
A  continual  watch  had  to  be  kept.  We  put 
the  cattle  in  corrals  at  night.  I  had  charge  of 
them  until  the  Indian  troubles  were  over." 
Speaking  of  his  early  experiences  of  those 
times  he  recounts  his  Indian  mission  to  South- 
ern Utah,  with  some  twenty  others,  known  as 
Parley's  company.  The  purpose  of  this  mis- 
sion was  to  establish  friendly  relations  with  the 
red  men  and  to  teach  them  the  art  of  farm- 
ing. The  company  broke  up  new  land  and 
taught  the  Indians  how  to  plant  and  cultivate. 
Quite  a  number  of  them  were  baptized.  This 
mission  continued  over  a  period  of  four  or  five 
months.  Later,  he  went  on  a  similar  mission 
to  the  one  in  Southern  Utah,  among  the  French 
and  Indian  tribes  at  Green  River,  and  at  Pa- 


112  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

cific  Springs.  Here,  they  met  some  success  in 
their  efforts,  and  he  returned  from  that  mis- 
sion with  his  brother-in-law,  John  Lott,  to 
Lehi,  where  he  continued  to  labor  on  his  farm 
until  1856. 

In  the  fall  of  1856  John  R.  Murdock,  who 
was  now  thirty  years  old,  went  with  a  relief 
party  to  assist  the  hand-cart  company  in  its 
struggles  to  reach  the  valleys  during  the  se- 
vere cold  weather  of  that  season.  The  com- 
pany was  in  a  precarious  condition,  and  grave 
fears  were  entertained  that  the  hand-cart  peo- 
ple might  perish.  It  was  a  time  of  intense 
anxiety,  and  men  everywhere  responded,  not 
only  with  willingness,  but  with  anxiety,  to  the 
call.  "Our  party,"  he  says,  ''met  the  emi- 
grants near  Fort  Bridger.  It  began  to  snow 
on  us  in  Echo  canyon  and  did  not  cease  until 
the  snow  was  three  feet  deep  on  the  low 
grounds  and  on  the  Big  Mountain  it  was  at 
a  depth  of  ten  feet,  largely  through  drifting. 
In  getting  over  the  Big  Mountain,  I  consider 
that  I  had  performed  the  big  feat  of  my  life. 
The  train,  consisting  of  about  seventy-five 
wagons,  had  been  ploughing  in  the  deep  snow 
all  day.     I  went  ahead  on  horseback,  leaving 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  113 

the  rest  of  the  relief  party  behind.  It  was  very 
difficult,  but  I  managed  to  struggle  through 
the  snow  to  the  top  of  the  Big  Mountain.  I 
was  quite  alone,  but  here  met  two  men,  with 
six  yoke  of  oxen,  who  had  come  up  on  the 
west  side  of  the  mountain.  They  had  come 
from  Provo  to  assist  the  hand-cart  company. 

When  I  told  them  their  teams  were  need- 
ed at  the  farthest  end  of  the  train,  they  said 
they  would  go  back  to  their  camp  and  remain 
until  the  next  day.  I  said  no,  and  told  them 
that  if  they  would  do  as  I  said  we  would  get 
the  whole  train  over  that  night.  I  took  full 
charge  of  all ;  for  I  realized  that  many  of  the 
people  would  perish  if  left  on  the  mountain  that 
night.  My  plan  was  to  take  the  oxen  and 
hitch  on  to  the  first  two  wagons  and  pull  them 
through  the  snow,  and  thus  open  the  road  and 
enable  the  whole  train  to  pass  through.  My 
advice  was  followed,  and  we  succeeded  in  get- 
ting the  entire  train  over  by  ten  o'clock  at 
night.  The  company  then  passed  on  quickly  to 
a  camp  ground,  where  there  was  plenty  of 
firewood  prepared  by  the  men  who  had  been 
left  behind.  When  the  train  had  passed 
through,  the  cut  in  the  snow  bank  was  ten  feet 
8 


114  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

deep.  You  could  lay  a  pole  across  the  chasm 
and  a  covered  wagon  could  easily  pass  under 
it.  The  next  day  we  went  into  Salt  Lake  City, 
w^here  the  snow  Vv^as  about  three  feet  deep. 
After  seeing  the  company  safely  in  the  Valley, 
I  returned  to  my  home  in  Lehi.'' 

"In  1857  President  Young  called  me  to  join 
the  Y.  X.  Co.,  an  abbreviation  for  Brigham 
Young  Express  Company,  to  carry  the  mail 
from  Salt  Lake  to  Missouri,  a  distance  of 
twelve  hundred  miles."  "This,''  he  says,  "was 
Hyrum  Kimball's  contract.  I  accepted  the  call 
and  accordingly  took  my  mules  to  drive.  Por- 
ter Rockwell  was  in  charge  of  the  company, 
which  consisted  of  about  ten  men.  Horace  Eld- 
redge  and  N.  Groesbeck,  who  were  going  east 
on  business,  accompanied  us. 

"We  left  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  first  day  of 
March,  1857.  Travel  was  so  difficult  and  the 
snow  so  deep  that  it  took  us  eleven  days  to  get 
with  our  pack  mules  to  Fort  Bridger,  a  distance 
of  only  one  hundred  and  fifteen  miles.  Not 
wishing  to  follow  further  the  old  emigrant 
road,  we  took  from  there  a  new  route  across 
the  country  by  what  is  known  as  the  Bitter 
Creek  route,  toward  Devil's  Gate  on  the  Sweet- 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  115 

water.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in 
getting  through  the  country,  and  there  is  one 
special  incident  of  this  journey  that  I  must 
speak  of.  We  were  on  the  lookout  for  game, 
especially  buffalo,  when  we  came  suddenly  on 
a  herd  of  five.  Porter  Rockwell  and  Craw- 
ford wxnt  out  and  got  a  shot  at  them  and 
wounded  one,  and  as  it  was  near  night  we  went 
into  camp. 

''Crawford  remarked  to  me :  'We  can  get 
that  wounded  buffalo,  if  you  are  the  kind  of 
a  man  I  think  you  are.'  We  struck  out  with  a 
mule  apiece,  without  having  had  anything  to 
eat  since  early  morning.  We  took  the  trail  of 
the  buffalo,  and  as  there  was  snow  on  the 
ground  the  tracks  were  rapidly  and  easily  fol- 
lowed. We  pursued  the  buffalo  until  it  was 
almost  dark,  before  we  finally  overtook  them. 
We  were  at  least  fifteen  miles  from  camp,  and 
attempted  to  return,  but  the  country  was  so 
uneven  and  rough  that  we  lost  our  road  and 
finally  were  compelled  to  stop,  for  our  mules 
were  tired  out  and  we  were  also.  The  night 
we  spent  there  was  most  terrible.  The  wind 
blew  dreadfully,  and  there  was  one  of  the  most 
terrible  northwest  storms  I  was  ever  in.    We 


116  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

could  get  no  wood  anywhere  except  on  a  high 
knoll.  There  we  found  some  green  sage  brush, 
which  we  had  to  pull  up  by  the  roots,  to  make 
a  fire  of,  and  we  struck  the  last  one  of  eleven 
matches  which  we  had  to  kindle  the  fire.  The 
exercise  of  pulling  up  the  green  brush  was 
perhaps  what  kept  us  from  freezing  to  death, 
for  we  hadn't  a  blanket  nor  a  bite  to  eat.  Our 
mules  came  nearly  freezing  with  their  saddles 
on,  it  was  so  terribly  cold.  We  were  a  happy 
pair  of  men  to  see  daylight  again,  so  that  we 
could  find  our  way  to  camp.  We  were  met  by 
a  party  of  men  who  had  set  out  to  find  us, 
fearing,  almost  expecting,  to  find  us  frozen  to 
death." 

After  leaving  this  place,  the  company  made 
its  way  on  to  Devil's  Gate  without  further  de- 
lay or  difficulties.  There  they  found  a  French 
trading  post,  where  the  hand-cart  company,  the 
year  before,  had  left  a  large  amount  of  their 
luggage,  which  Daniel  W.  Jones  and  Benjamin 
I'lampton  were  delegated  to  take  charge  of  un- 
til it  could  be  removed  to  Utah.  After  reach- 
ing the  regular  course  of  the  journey.  Fort 
Laramie,  Porter  Rockwell  remained  at  that 
l)ost  and  the  company  then  fell  under  the  direc- 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  117 

tion  of  N.  Groesbeck.  On  leaving  Fort  Lar- 
amie the  most  direct  route  to  Independence  was 
taken,  and  though  the  country  was  not  so 
rough  and  uneven  as  that  over  which  they 
passed,  and  the  climate  very  much  more 
agreeable,  this  latter  part  of  the  journey  was 
made  extremely  difficult  from  the  fact  that  the 
men  had  to  walk  most  all  the  way  in  conse- 
quence of  the  poor  condition  of  their  animals. 
At  that  season  of  the  year  they,  of  course, 
found  no  grass  except  that  which  was  dry  and 
not  very  nourishing.  The  company  reached 
Independence  the  26th  of  April,  almost  two 
months  from  the  time  they  left  Salt  Lake  City. 
Independence  at  this  time  was  not  only  near- 
er to  the  City  of  Washington,  but  it  was  on  a 
direct  line  from  St.  Louis,  which  was  then 
the  chief  commercial  city  of  the  West. 
Railroads  had  not  then  superseded  water  traf- 
fic of  the  Mississippi,  and  consequently  the 
boats  coming  up  that  river  from  New  Orleans 
made  it  not  only  the  most  available  point  for 
landing  merchandise,  but  the  Saints  who  were 
now  arriving  in  krge  numbers  from  Europe 
also  came  by  way  of  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis, 
and  thence  on  to  Independence.     Here,  the 


118  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

mail  was  brought  not  only  from'  the  Eastern 
States,  but  also  from  Europe.  After  procur- 
ing an  outfit  at  Independence  consisting  of 
light  vehicles,  mules,  and  horses,  John  R.  Mur- 
dock  set  out  upon  his  return  for  Utah  on  the 
first  day  of  May  with  the  United  States  mail, 
and  George  A.  Smith,  Doctor  Bernhisel, 
Truman  O.  Angell,  a  young  man,  and  two 
West  Indian  planters,  as  passengers. 

The  return  journey  was  more  quickly  ac- 
complished because  of  the  favorable  season  of 
the  year.  There  was  more  grass  for  the  ani- 
mals and  the  roads  were  in  better  condition. 
When  out  about  three  hundred  miles  they  lost 
three  of  their  best  mules  which,  however,  they 
subsequently  found.  Although  this  loss  of  the 
animals  hindered  them  somewhat,  they  still 
kept  steadily  going  and  made  good  time.  The 
route  from'  Independence  brought  them  to  the 
South  Platte,  which  at  this  season  of  the  year 
they  found  some  difficulty  in  crossing.  "All  the 
passengers,''  he  says,  "except  the  doctor,  had  to 
wade  the  river,  which  w^as  as  much  as  a  mile 
and  a  half  across,  and  was  full  of  mud  and 
ice.  Though  the  stream  was  shallow  there  were 
numerous  holes  in  its  bed  which  was  consti- 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  119 

tuted  largely  of  quicksand.  I  waded  out  into  it 
several  rods,  but  the  water  was  so  cold  it  took 
my  breath.  I  therefore  returned  to  the  shore 
at  once.  All  the  men,  including  Brother  George 
A.  Smith,  worked  hard  and  faithfully  in  get- 
ting the  wagons  across.  The  two  West  Indian 
planters,  however,  concluded  that  they  would 
prefer  to  ride  the  loose  mules;  so  I  caught 
two,  and  after  they  had  mounted  them  and  got 
out  into  the  stream,  perhaps  one  third  of  the 
way  across,  one  of  the  mules  plunged  into  one 
of  the  deep  holes  and  fell.  The  planter  went 
down  with  him,  and  while  in  the  water  lost 
some  of  his  money  and  a  pistol,  which  he  car- 
ried in  his  pocket.  He  turned  his  mule  loose 
and  got  over  the  best  he  could.  The  other 
planter  went  a  little  farther  and  met  a  similar 
experience.  He  lost  his  knife  and  other  arti- 
cles which  he  carried  in  his  pockets.  When 
they  reached  the  other  side  of  the  river  they 
looked  like  drowned  rats.  When  we  all  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  over  the  Platte  we  made  a 
fire  and  dried  our  clothing." 

"From  the  river  the  party  continued  its  trav- 
els without  further  incident  to  Fort  Laramie. 
At  Horse  Shoe,  a  little  stream  above  Fort  Lar- 


120  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

amie,  they  met  a  party  of  fifty  missionaries, 
who  were  traveling  with  hand-carts  and  were 
on  their  way  from  Utah  to  their  mission  fields 
in  the  East.  Continuing  on  their  journey  they 
reached  Salt  Lake  City  the  last  of  May,  having 
covered  the  distance  in  about  one  month. 

After  remaining  at  home  in  Lehi  with  his 
family  for  one  month,  John  R.  Murdock  was 
called  to  make  a  second  trip  with  the  mail  and 
express  from'  Salt  Lake  City  to  Independence. 
There  were  special  reasons  why  his  services 
were  particularly  sought  after  at  this  time  by 
President  Young.  The  Overland  Mail  service 
between  the  East  and  the  Pacific  Coast  had 
been  very  unsatisfactory.  The  mails  were  long 
delayed  in  transit,  and  passenger  accommo- 
dations were  meagre,  and  the  people  of  Utah 
were  greatly  dissatisfied  over  the  contemptuous 
neglect  to  which  they  were  subjected.  Gov- 
ernment contractors  had  no  special  desire  to 
cater  either  to  the  wishes  or  comforts  of  the 
Mormons.  When,  therefore,  the  time  came  to 
bid  for  the  transportation  of  the  mail,  Hocka- 
day  and  McGraw  were  underbid  by  Hyrum 
Kimball,  who  took  over  the  government  con- 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  121 

tract  which  was  organized  into  a  company, 
briefly  styled  the  Y.  X.  Company. 

The  Mormons  were,  of  course,  ambitious  to 
reform  the  service  by  making  it  expeditious, 
safe  and  as  comfortable  as  the  circumstances 
of  those  times  would  permit.  Men  were  there- 
fore needed  whose  judgment,  courage,  pru- 
dence, and  skill  could  be  relied  upon.  Brig- 
ham  Young  had  a  large  acquaintance  with  the 
men  who  had  proven  themselves  throughout 
the  trying  times  of  Missouri  and  Nauvoo.  Here 
was  a  man  who  had  such  a  test,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  the  Mormon  Battalion,  who  was 
a  minute  man,  who  was  quick  to  size  up  a  sit- 
uation and  make  the  best  of  it.  Such  men  were 
not  easy  to  find,  and  it  is  not  therefore  to  be 
wondered  at  that  John  R.  Murdock,  during 
those  early  days,  and  subsequently  during  the 
emigration  period  in  which  practical  men  were 
required,  should  be  frequently  called  upon. 
Murdock  always  had  the  happy  faculty  of  do- 
ing things — doing  them  in  the  right  way  and 
at  the  right  time. 

The  eyes  of  jealous  contractors  were  upon 
this  company.  Its  conduct  would  be  care- 
fully watched;  every  failure  would  be  noted. 


122  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

criticised,  and  of  course,  reported  to  Washing- 
ton. There  must  be  no  failures.  President 
Young  and  the  leaders  must  demonstrate  to 
the  officials  at  Washington  that  they  could  dis- 
charge this  new  trust  with  promptness  and 
ability,  that  the  new  service  which  they  were 
to  render  was  to  be  in  every  way  superior  to 
the  service  of  those  whom  the  new  company  had 
superseded.  Men  called  to  this  work  had  a 
record  to  make,  not  only  for  themselves  but  for 
the  reputation  of  the  Mormon  people. 

"We  left  Salt  Lake  City,'^  says  John  R. 
Murdock,  "about  the  first  day  of  July,  1857, 
carrying  with  us  United  States  mail.  There 
were  three  vehicles  and  six  men  in  the  party. 
John  Kerr,  an  agent  for  Kincaid  &  Bell,  the 
successors  of  Livingstone  &  Bell,  merchants, 
also  traveled  with  us.  He  had  with  him'  a 
large  amount  of  money,  about  sixty  thousand 
dollars.  I  also  had  about  thirteen  thousand  dol- 
lars in  Church  drafts.  We  felt,  naturally,  the 
great  responsibility  placed  upon  us.  In  fifteen 
days  we  covered  the  entire  distance  of  twelve 
hundred  miles  from  Salt  Lake  City  to  Inde- 
pendence, Missouri.  Our  stock  was  fed  on 
grass  only,  but  this  was  good  all  along  the 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  123 

road.  Our  method  of  traveling  was  as  fol- 
lows: We  arose  at  daylight,  hitched  up  and 
traveled  twenty  miles,  then  stopped  for  break- 
fast and  rested  an  hour  or  two  while  our  stock 
fed  and  watered.  We  then  traveled  twenty 
miles  and  made  another  stop.  In  the  after- 
noon we  made  a  like  drive  and  stopped  for  sup- 
per, after  which  we  made  a  fourth  drive  into 
the  night,  thus  making  an  average  of  eighty 
miles'  travel  each  day,  for  fifteen  days.'' 

That  was  certainly  a  marvelous  record,  and 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  it  has  a  parallel  in 
all  the  history  of  western  pioneer  life.  Those 
who  know  something  of  the  capacity  of  horses 
and  mules  will  appreciate  the  difficulty  of  cov- 
ering so  great  distance  in  so  short  a  time. 
Such  persons  would  naturally  ask,  "How  could 
he  do  it?"  Those  who  know  the  man,  in  the 
first  place,  know  that  he  is  a  lover  of  fine 
horses,  and  that  he  has  always  taken  great 
pride  in  driving  a  beautiful  team'.  His  experi- 
ence from  his  earliest  boyhood  taught  him  the 
capacity  of  horses,  mules,  and  oxen.  He  had 
learned  how  to  treat  them ;  and  what  was  per- 
haps of  greater  value  to  him,  was  his  love  and 
sympathy  for  animals^  which  naturally  respond 


124  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

to  a  friendship  which  they  instinctively  feel, 
and  that  response  is  always  the  best  there  is  in 
them.  John  R.  Murdock  was  always  proud  of 
that  record. 

Speaking  of  what  he  considered  as  a  prov- 
idential escape  on  this  second  journey,  he  says : 
''Thirty-five  miles  above  Grand  Island  on  the 
Platte  river  we  stopped  for  supper  and  then 
proceeded  a  short  distance,  when  we  saw  a 
large  body  of  horsemen  on  the  road,  coming 
toward  us.  At  first  we  thought  they  were  gov- 
ernment troops,  as  the  Johnston  Army  was 
then  moving  toward  Utah ;  but  as  it  advanced, 
we  discovered  that  they  were  a  war  party  of 
Cheyenne  Indians,  about  forty  in  number,  and 
heavily  armed  with  guns,  spears,  bows  and  ar- 
rows. This  tribe  of  Indians  was  very  turbu- 
lent and  savage  and  very  hostile  to  the  whites 
at  this  time.  As  it  afterwards  proved,  the  band 
was  out  for  booty,  and  was  ready  to  commit 
any  depredation.  Our  vehicles  were  covered, 
and  we  had  a  few  loose  animals  which  we  were 
driving  to  stock  the  road.  'Boys,'  I  said,  'we 
must  act  wisely  or  we  may  get  into  trouble. 
We  must  not  stop  and  let  them  discover  our 
strength.'  There  were  only  seven  of  us  in  the 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  125 

party.  The  fact  that  we  had  loose  horses  in- 
dicated to  the  Indians  that  there  must  be  a 
number  of  men  inside  our  vehicles,  and  this 
was  confirmed  by  Mr.  Kerr,  who,  in  recapping 
a  double-barrel  shotgun,  discharged  it,  the  shot 
passing  through  the  cover.  By  this  time  the 
Indians  were  within  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  of  us.  They  stopped  suddenly  and  in- 
sisted that  we  also  should  stop.  I  told  the 
boys  not  to  do  this,  but  to  go  on  as  fast  as  pos- 
sible, and  I  would  remain  and  talk  with  the  In- 
dians. I  had  an  armful  of  tobacco  which  I 
had  brought  to  use  in  an  emergency,  knowing 
the  fondness  of  the  Indians  for  this  article.  I 
went  up  to  them  and  asked  for  the  chief.  He 
was  pointed  out  to  me.  I  gave  him  the  to- 
bacco and  told  him  to  distribute  it  among  his 
men.  I  had  ridden  a  little  ahead  of  our  party, 
and  while  I  was  talking  to  the  Indians  and  in- 
sisting that  they  should  let  us  pass  on,  our  boys 
drove  by  them  as  fast  as  they  could,  without 
any  interruption.  After  we  passed,  the  Indians 
appeared  to  hold  a  consultation,  but  they  evi- 
dently decided  to  give  us  no  further  trouble, 
and  we  passed  quickly  on  to  Fort  Kearney. 
From  that  place,  a  distance  of  thirty-five  miles, 


126  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

we  traveled  without  a  pause,  as  we  feared  they 
would  surprise  us  by  an  attack  if  we  went  into 
camp  before  reaching  the  Fort.  Such  would 
certainly  have  happened  had  we  stopped  and 
permitted  them  to  see  how  weak  we  were  in 
numbers.  Besides,  we  had  just  what  they 
wanted,  about  thirty  head  of  good  horses  and 
a  large  amount  of  money  in  gold  and  silver. 
This  same  band  of  Indians,  about  a  week  later 
attacked  eighteen  men  who  were  driving  a  gov- 
ernment beef  herd  on  their  way  to  Utah.  A 
fight  took  place  near  the  Platte  river.  Two 
men  were  killed  and  the  Indians  got  away  with 
all  the  cattle." 

The  money  they  carried  with  them  was  in 
Mr.  Kerr's  charge,  but  Murdock  assisted  him 
in  protecting  it,  and  later  in  carrying  it  to  the 
bank  in  St.  Louis,  whither  he  went  to  do  some 
business  with  H.  S.  Eldredge,  the  Church 
agent  there. 

From  Fort  Kearney  the  rest  of  the  journey 
was  made  to  Independence  without  any  further 
adventures.  There,  the  United  States  mail  was 
delivered  into  the  custody  of  the  proper  offi- 
cers ;  but  this  was  the  last  mail  carried  by  our 
people  for  the  government  in  those  early  times. 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHI  127 

Orders  had  been  sent  on  from  Washington  to 
lendependence  to  the  effect  that  mail  directed 
to  Utah  must  be  withheld. 

The  army  was  now  on  its  way  to  Utah,  and 
the  whole  situation  was  changed.  The  mail 
contract  terminated  abruptly,  and  John  R. 
Murdock  was  again  subjected  to  another  of 
those  dangerous  uncertainties  which  had  fre- 
quently fallen  to  his  lot  from  his  earliest  recol- 
lection. He  had  learned,  however,  that  new 
dangers  meant  new  activities,  and  that  he  must 
turn  his  hand  to  whatever  lay  before  him  to  do. 
He  was  always  resourceful,  and  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  adjusting  himself  to  new  and  unusual 
tasks.  Now  that  his  services  for  the  govern- 
ment were  ended  he  went  on  to  St.  Louis  and 
from  there  made  his  way  to  Atchison,  on  the 
Missouri  river.  Here,  he  loaded  a  mule  and 
horse  train  with  merchandise  for  Bell  &  Kin- 
caid  of  Salt  Lake  City.  On  the  return  jour- 
ney there  was  much  excitement  along  the  road 
in  view  of  the  attitude  of  the  United  States 
government  toward  the  Mormon  people.  He 
had  been,  however,  under  fire  before,  and  was 
equal  to  the  dangers  and  troubles  ahead. 

From  Atchison  he  traveled  with  several  de- 


128  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

tachments  of  the  United  States  army  on  its  way 
to  Utah.  He  therefore  understood  what  was 
going  on,  and  from  the  soldiers  learned  some- 
thing of  what  they  intended  to  do  upon  reach- 
ing Salt  Lake  City.  It  was  the  old  story  of 
Mormon  persecution — a  story  he  knew  by 
heart.  He  was  not  dismayed,  for  he  had  learned 
to  trust  to  the  providences  of  God.  On  reach- 
ing Devil's  Gate,  he  met  Gen.  Burton  and  his 
forces.  There,  a  new  and  important  duty  came 
to  him'.  It  was  necessary  to  forward  an  ex- 
press from  General  Burton's  camp  to  President 
Young  in  Salt  Lake  City.  "My  errand,"  he 
says,  "was  very  urgent.  I  rode  day  and  night, 
and  with  a  change  of  horses  covered  the  dis- 
tance in  four  days — a  distance  of  three  hun- 
dred and  forty  miles."  He  knew  how  to  ride  a 
horse  as  well  as  how  to  drive  it.  Such  a  ride 
must  certainly  have  taxed  his  energies  very 
greatly.  Though  it  was  not  famous  in  poetry 
or  in  song,  it  was  nevertheless  a  great  feat — 
a  record  not  elsewhere  easily  found. 

He  reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  last  day 
of  Steptember,  and  after  delivering  his  mes- 
sage repaired  at  once  to  his  home  in  Lehi. 
After  such  a  strenuous  life  and  such  remark- 


EARLY  LIFE  IN  LEHt  129 

able  endurance,  he  naturally  found  some  relief 
in  the  quiet  and  comfort  of  a  home;  but  one 
of  his  children  died  soon  after  his  arrival,  so 
that  a  journey  of  remarkable  endurance  had 
its  closinof  scene  in  the  sorrows  of  death. 


130  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 


CH/VPTER  VII 

LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS 

The  winter  of  1857-58  was  one  full  of  anxi- 
eties to  the  Latter-day  Saints,  who  were  face 
to  face  with  conditions  that  might  result  in  an- 
other exodus.  Preparations  were  under  way 
for  the  abandonment  of  homes,  and  perhaps 
another  exodus  was  before  the  people.  John 
R.  Murdock  must  have  felt  in  those  days  that 
the  lot  of  a  Latter-day  Saint  was  that  of  a 
wanderer.  But  no  man  in  the  Church  was  bet- 
ter prepared  for  just  such  emergencies  as  con- 
fronted the  people  than  he  was,  since  he  had 
been  inured  to  them  from  his  infancy.  Speak- 
ing of  that  winter,  he  said:  "I  remained  at 
home,  attending  to  my  private  affairs.*'  He 
had  no  private  affairs  that  might  not  be  in- 
terrupted ;  he  had  no  personal  interest  that  he 
would  not  gladly  surrender  to  the  interests  of 
the  Church.  He  knew  what  was  going  on  at 
the  frontier.  He  understood  the  movement  of 
the  army  which  was  then  advancing  upon 
Utah.    He  had  been  intrusted  with  important 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  131 

work,  which  he  had  accompHshed  in  a  most  sat- 
isfactory manner. 

During  the  trying  hours  of  a  threatened  in- 
vasion of  Utah,  President  Young  remembered 
the  kind-hearted  man  and  a  loyal  friend,  Thom- 
as L.  Kane,  who  had  visited  the  Saints  while 
they  were  exiled  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri 
River.  His  home  was  in  Philadelphia,  and  Pres- 
ident Young  had  assurance  of  the  kindly  feel- 
ings of  Colonel  Kane  for  the  Mormon  people. 
Samuel  Richards  was  therefore  sent  to  ask  the 
kind-hearted  Colonel  to  intercede  in  behalf  of 
Utah,  and  to  bring  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
President  the  untruthful  reports  upon  which 
the  army  had  been  sent.  Although  Col.  Kane 
was  then  in  poor  health,  he  at  once  undertook 
the  mission  of  a  peace-maker.  He  proceeded 
at  once  to  Washington,  where  he  interviewed 
the  President  and  obtained  from  him  a  com- 
mission to  visit  the  scenes  of  trouble  and  pro- 
mote peace  and  a  proper  understanding  be- 
tween the  Mormons  and  the  government.  Col- 
onel Kane  set  out  at  once  from  New  York  to 
the  Pacific  Coast  by  steamer  and  by  the  Isth- 
mus. He  reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  25th 
of  February,  1858,  and  after  a  hurried  consul- 


132  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

tation  with  the  authorities  made  his  way  to 
Fort  Bridger,  where  he  held  interviews  with 
the  newly-appointed  governor,  Mr.  Cumming. 
He  found  the  hostiHty  against  the  Mormons 
very  great,  and  General  Johnson  was  bitterly 
opposed  to  Colonel  Kane's  mission.  Indeed, 
at  one  time  an  open  conflict  between  the  two 
seemed  almost  inevitable. 

Colonel  Kane  returned  with  Governor  Cum- 
ming to  Salt  Lake  City,  which  they  reached  on 
the  12th  day  of  April.  After  the  way  had  been 
paved  for  an  amicable  adjustment  between  the 
newly  appointed  governor  and  the  Mormon 
people,  and  prospects  of  settling  the  troubles 
were  in  sight,  Colonel  Kane  set  out  upon  his 
return  to  the  East  across  the  plains.  The  hos- 
tility of  General  Johnson  to  Colonel  Kane  was 
known  to  Brigham  Young,  and  he  was  there- 
fore extremely  anxious  that  their  warm-heart- 
ed friend,  the  colonel,  might  be  conveyed  across 
the  plains  without  danger  and  as  expeditiously 
and  comfortably  as  possible.  President  Young 
therefore  selected  a  sepecial  escort  of  men 
whose  proven  courage,  wisdom,  and  loyalty 
could  be  depended  upon.  He  therefore  ap- 
pointed for  Colonel  Kane  a  tried  and  proven 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  133 

escort  of  five  men,  under  the  direction  of 
Howard  Egan.  John  R.  Murdock  was  made  a 
member  of  that  escort.  Governor  Gumming 
went  with  them  as  far  as  Fort  Bridger. 

Speaking  of  that  mission,  John  R.  Murdock 
says:  "We  started  about  the  first  of  May, 
1858.  When  we  arrived  at  Fort  Bridger,  we 
found  the  most  hostile  feeHngs  against  us,  and 
against  everything  concerning  the  welfare  of 
the  Mormons.  We  remained  a  few  hours  at 
the  Fort  and  then  proceeded  on  our  journey. 
We  met  several  government  supply  teams,  and 
those  who  accompanied  them  were  also  very 
hostile.  Nothing  of  any  note  on. the  way  trans- 
pired. We  made  the  whole  trip,  a  distance  of 
one  thousand  and  sixty  miles,  in  twenty-two 
days,  and  without  a  change  of  animals." 

That,  too,  was  a  remarkable  journey  at  that 
early  season  of  the  year  when  feed  through  the 
mountains  was  insufficient  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  they  were  crossing  a  country 
whose  feed  had  been  quite  thoroughly  exhaust- 
ed by  the  government  animals.  Upon  reach- 
ing the  Missouri  river,  Howard  Egan  went 
on  with  Golonel  Kane  to  Washington  that  he 
might  bring  back  with  him  to  Utah  any  com- 


134  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

munication  which  the  President  of  the  United 
State  desired  to  send  to  Governor  Cumming  or 
to  General  Johnston.  Egan's  absence  on  this 
journey  caused  a  delay  of  the  rest  of  the  escort 
at  Florence  for  about  six  weeks. 

At  the  end  of  that  period  the  escort  returned 
to  Fort  Bridger,  making  as  good  time  on  the 
return  trip  as  they  had  made  going  E^st.  Egan 
had  brought  with  him  important  documents 
from  Washington  to  President  Young.  It  was 
necessary  that  they  be  forwarded  to  Salt  Lake 
City  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  The  dis- 
tance from'  Fort  Bridger  was  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  miles,  and  to  John  R.  Murdock  was 
committed  the  duty  of  conveying  this  important 
da::;iment  with  speed  and  without  delay.  He 
covered  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
miles  in  twenty-four  hours. 

''I  rode/'  he  says,  ''the  same  horse,  Painter, 
that  I  had  ridden  during  the  whole  trip  to 
Omaha  and  back."  Some  of  these  rides  of 
John  R.  Murdock  will  go  into  history  in  days 
to  come  with  the  celebrated  rides  that  are  char- 
acterized in  the  poetry  of  our  national  hero- 
ism. They  are  so  remarkable  as  to  appear  al- 
most incredible  when  compared  with  the  pres- 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  135 

ent  endurance  of  both  man  and  beast.  That 
faithful  horse,  Painter,  will  hold  his  place,  too, 
in  the  honorable  mention  of  great  deeds.  No 
wonder  his  rider  holds  his  name  in  loving  re- 
membrance, and  mentions  him  with  pride  when 
recounting  his  early  experiences  in  Utah. 

''I  went  home  to  Lehi  and  worked  at  pri- 
vate business  until  the  year  1861.''  That  was 
a  very  modest  account  to  give  of  himself  after 
so  important  a  mission.  In  these  simple  words 
there  was  no  ostentation,  no  self-glory.  It  was 
a  duty  well  performed.  It  was  a  mission  of 
high  honor.  It  was  a  part  of  a  great  history 
in  the  lives  of  a  great  people.  It  was  one  of 
those  events  that  time  alone  could  magnify 
and  give  its  true  setting  in  the  fame  it  was  to 
bring  to  the  life  of  a  man  who  did  his  duty 
humbly  as  he  did  it  well.  He  had  reason,  how- 
ever, to  feel  grateful ;  a  child  had  been  born  to 
him  in  his  absence. 

Soon  after  his  return,  the  army  came  to  Utah 
and  made  its  encampment  not  far  from  Lehi, 
at  a  place  known  as  Camp  Floyd.  The  en- 
campment of  the  army,  and  the  presence  of  a 
large  number  of  camp-followers  gave  enlarged 
opportunities  to  the  people  in  the  vicinity  of  the 


136  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

camp  and  Salt  Lake  City  to  speculate  and  ad- 
vance their  material  interests.  John  R.  Mur- 
dock's  favorable  location  at  Lehi  and  his  in- 
herent genius  to  avail  himself  of  such  oppor- 
tunities was  not,  however,  to  be  gratified.  The 
faithful  discharge  of  one  duty  made  him'  all 
the  more  desirable  for  new-  and  enlarged  re- 
sponsibilities. 

"In  the  year  1861  I  was  called,"  he  says,  "to 
take  charge  of  a  Church  train  consisting  of 
fifty  wagons  and  as  many  drivers.  There  were 
four  yoke  of  oxen  to  each  wagon.  It  was  our 
mission  to  go  down  to  the  Missouri  river  and 
bring  emigrants  to  Utah.  After  making  our 
preparations,  we  started  about  the  first  of  May, 
1861.  Grass  was  short,  consequently  we  had 
to  use  great  care  in  providing  suitable  food  foi 
our  teams,  and  to  drive  prudently  until  the 
grass  improved.  Before  leaving  Salt  Lake  City 
we  loaded  up  with  flour  and  other  provisions  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  emigrants  with  whom 
we  were  to  return.  These  supplies  we  depos- 
ited at  certain  points  along  the  road,  so  that 
we  could  use  them  on  our  return. 

"It  generally  took  about  nine  weeks  to  cross 
the  plains,  and  though  it  was  a  laborious  trip, 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  137 

we  had  a  great  deal  of  enjoyment  out  of  it. 
We  had  musicians  with  their  instruments  and 
would  sometimes  have  what  the  boys  called 
'stag  dances/  as  there  were  no  ladies  with  us 
on  the  'down'  trip.  There  were  always  several 
trains  on  the  road  which  frequently  camped 
close  to  ours,  so  the  drivers  often  mingled  with 
?ach  other  and  engaged  in  such  contests  as 
wrestling,  racing,  and  jumping.  I  took  a 
great  deal  of  pleasure  in  such  association  with 
the  boys." 

These  trains  were  generally  made  up  from 
different  sections  of  the  territory,  and  there 
would  naturally  be  some  feelings  of  rivalry 
among  them.  As  these  rivalries  took  on  the 
form  of  honorable  contests,  they  naturally  gave 
rise  to  sympathies  and  friendships  that  lasted 
throughout  life.  How  often  in  after  years 
men  were  wont  to  say,  when  introduced  to  a 
supposed  stranger.  Yes,  I  knew  him.  We 
were  old  friends  together  on  the  plains."  To 
know  each  other  on  the  plains  was  the  badge  of 
friendship  and  the  assurance  of  hospitality. 
How  these  old-time  friends  were  men  and 
women  who  underwent  trials  together  and  re- 
joiced  in   lasting   friendships,    those   of   later 


138  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

generations  can  hardly  realize.  There  is  an 
old  adage  which  says :  "If  you  would  know  a 
man  you  must  first  travel  with  him/' 

How  unlike,  however,  were  the  Mormon 
travelers  on  the  plains  in  those  early  days  when 
compared  with  other  travelers !  The  latter 
were  quite  contentious  from  the  familiarity  of 
their  associations  with  their  fellow  men.  Their 
companies  were  frequently  broken  up,  hatreds 
were  engendered,  and  sometimes  men  fought 
to  the  death.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Mor- 
mons were  men  and  women  of  religious  con- 
victions, who  deeply  sensed  their  obligations 
and  desired  to  live  in  harmony  with  their  fel- 
low men.  They  were  under  the  watch-care  of 
Sod  and  were  taught  unity  and  brotherly  love 
by  humbly  submitting  themselves  to  the  direc- 
tion of  a  kind  Providence,  both  morning  and 
night,  in  an  attitude  of  prayer.  They  were 
taught  to  feel  the  need  of  divine  protection, 
and  the  approbation  of  their  God.  How 
could  they  have,  then,  they  asked  themselves, 
these  blessings,  if  in  their  midst  there  were 
not  brotherly  love  and  a  willingness  to  make 
sacrifice  for  the  good  and  happiness  of  others. 
The  relationship  of  these  Mormon  emigrants 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  139 

was  both,  instructive  and  joyful.  What, 
therefore,  John  R.  Murdock  has  to  say  of  those 
days  on  the  plains  is  full  of  interest.  He  gives 
us  some  insight  into  a  life  far  from  anything 
that  we  have  ever  experienced,  but  into  a  life 
that  had  much  to  do  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  that  faith,  love,  and  friendship  that  char- 
acterized the  beginning  of  the  Church  in  the 
early  history  of  Utah. 

^'Our  first  trip  down,"  he  says,  "was  without 
any  particular  incident.  We  remained  at  the 
river  a  short  time  and  then  loaded  the  luggage 
of  the  emigrants  into  our  wagons.  There 
wxre  from  sixteen  to  tw^enty  persons, 
men,  women,  and  children,  assigned  to  each 
wagon.  Those  who  were  old  enough  to  walk 
were  expected  to  do  so  the  greater  part  of 
the  way.  They  would  ride,  occasionally, 
when  the  roads  were  good.  I  always  appointed 
two  men  whose  duty  it  was  to  look  after  the 
passengers.  It  was  certainly  novel  to  see  a 
train  starting  out  with  everything  that  could 
be  put  into  w^agons  and  everything  that  could 
be  tied  to  the  outside,  such  as  buckets,  cans  and 
all  kinds  of  cooking  utensils.  It  reminded  one 
of  an  old  turkey  with  a  brood  of  young  ones 


140  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

keeping  her  company.  Generally  there  were 
about  seven  hundred  passengers  in  one  train. 
The  organization  was  systematic  and  complete. 
It  consisted  of  a  captain,  an  assistant,  a  chap- 
lain, a  quarter-master,  hospital  steward,  a 
camp  guard,  and  a  night  guard  for  the  stock. 
The  chaplain  took  charge  of  the  religious  ser- 
vices, and  we  had  prayer  night  and  morning. 
We  also  had  a  choir  with  its  leader.  The  peo- 
ple were  called  together  by  means  of  a 
bugle.'' 

This  description  applies  to  all  the  companies, 
which  required  about  nine  weeks  going  and 
coming.  The  experiences  of  the  emigrants 
were  educational  as  well  as  fraternal.  Frequent- 
ly the  teamsters,  who  were  usually  unmarried 
men,  formed  attachments  for  the  young  ladies 
among  the  emigrants.  These  attachments  re- 
sulted in  life-long  friendships,  and  sometimes 
in  matrimony. 

On  reaching  home  from  his  trip  across  the 
plains  in  1861,  he  returned  to  Lehi  to  pass  the 
winter  of  1861  and  62.  This  gave  him  no  op- 
portunity to  till  his  fields  and  harvest  his  crop. 
His  stay  at  home  was  at  a  season  of  the  year 
in  which  it  was  most  difficult  to  provide  means 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  l4l 

of  sustenance  for  his  family.  John  R.  Mitr- 
dock  was  a  thoughtful  man — a  man  who 
could  foresee  possible  dangers  and  was  there- 
fore constantly  on  his  guard  to  escape  troubles 
that  foresight  and  prudence  might  protect  him 
from.  There  is  seen  in  his  narratives  of  those 
early  experiences  a  deep-seated  satisfaction 
which  he  felt  in  the  fact  that  he  and  those  in  his 
charge  escaped  accidents  and  avoided  both  dan- 
ger and  trouble.  The  personal  conquests  of  his 
life  were  the  conquests  of  peace.  He  put  great 
store  upon  timely  prudence,  which  was  a  pro- 
tection to  himself  and  others;  and  although 
he  was  pre-eminently  helpful  in  assisting  others 
out  of  difficulty,  he  found  greater  satisfaction 
in  keeping  them  from  it.  He  had,  therefore,  a 
right  to  speak  of  that  particular  satisfaction 
which  he  felt  in  the  fact  that  he  had  lost  few 
passengers  among  all  those  whom  he  had 
helped  across  the  plains. 

The  spring  of  1862  brought  to  him  another 
call.  It  might  seem  hard  to  draft  him  again 
into  a  service  to  which  he  had  devoted  so  much 
of  his  life.  Why  not  let  others  try  their  hand? 
It  was  not,  however,  work  upon  which  to  make 
experiments.    The  lives,  as  well  as  the  comfort 


142  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

and  happiness  of  thousands,  depended  upon 
the  skill  and  efficiency  with  which  the  emigra- 
tion trains  of  those  days  were  conducted.  Men, 
tried  and  true,  must  bear  the  responsibility. 
Moral  questions  were  involved,  and  men  of 
known  moral  character  were  needed. 

John  R.  Murdock  responded  again  to  a  call 
in  the  spring  of  1862.  Of  that  year  he  says: 
"The  season  was  very  different  from  that  of 
the  year  before.  It  was  exceedingly  wet,  and 
every  little  stream  was  filled  from'  the  melting 
snows.  At  Yellow  Creek,  about  seventy  miles 
from  Salt  Lake  City,  we  were  a  whole  day 
crossing  a  little  stream  not  more  than  twenty 
feet  wide.  All  the  low  country  '^near  this 
stream  was  covered  with  water  waist  deep. 
7\11  that  day  we  struggled  in  getting  our  train 
over  a  small  bridge.  While  we  were  at  work,  a 
man  with  his  family  came  along  and  asked  to 
cross  our  bridge.  His  request  was  granted. 
He  felt  so  grateful  about  it  that  he  handed  out 
to  me  a  keg  of  whisky  and  asked  me  to  have 
a  drink.  Of  course  I  could  not  regard  what 
he  intended  to  be  a  treat  as  something  I  could 
accept  as  a  personal  favor.  I  told  him  that 
when  I  drank  all  the  boys  must  have  the  same 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  143 

privilege,  fie  told  us  to  take  it  all.  Having 
wallowed  in  mud  and  water  for  ten  hours  that 
day,  without  very  much  to  eat,  we  accepted  the 
liquor  as  a  stimulant,  especially  as  we  still  had 
ten  wagons  to  get  across;  and  by  the  aid  of 
the  stimulant  we  were  enabled  to  bring  them 
all  over  that  night.  When  we  reached  Ham's 
Fork  we  found  the  entire  bottom-lands  covered 
for  a  distance  of  one-half  mile  with  water, 
which  was  six  feet  deep  in  some  places.  I 
succeeded  in  getting  my  train  across  in  two, 
days,  but  some  of  the  other  trains  were  three 
.weeks  in  getting  over." 

Owing  to  the  wet  season  and  the  consequent 
high  waters,  his  train  that  year  was  very  great- 
ly delayed.  He  reached  Winter  Quarters  about 
the  middle  of  July.  There,  he  met  for  the  first 
time  Mary  Ellen  W^olfenden  and  her  mothers 
family,  which  consisted  of  two  ctaughters  and 
two  grandchildren.  Subsequently  Mary  Ellen 
became  his  wife.  While  East,  during  this  trip, 
he  visited  his  sister  Julia,  who  had  married  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Dixon,  with  whom  she 
went  to  Texas,  where  he  was  killed  in  a  steam- 
boat explosion.  She  afterwards  married  John 
Middleton   with  whom  she  was  living  when  he 


144  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

found  her  at  St.  Louis.  The  visit  was  a  source 
of  pleasure  to  both  of  them. 

"1  went,"  he  says,  "by  way  of  Nauvoo  to 
see  Sister  Emma  Smith  and  her  family  and  to 
visit  the  city  where  I  had  lived  in  former 
times.''  During  the  years  that  he  had  been  in 
the  employ  of  Joseph  Smith  on  his  farm  he 
became  naturally  associated  more  or  less  inti- 
mately with  the  Prophet  and  his  family.  Be- 
sides, Joseph  and  Emma  Smith  had  been  the 
foster  parents  of  his  twin  sister  and  brother, 
whose  love  and  kindness  for  the  little  ones  he 
had  never  forgotten.  That  visit  and  the  joy- 
ful meeting  that  he  had  with  his  sister  whom 
he  had  not  seen  for  eighteen  years  made  the 
trip  of  1862  both  pleasurable  and  remarkable 
to  him.  On  his  return  from  these  visits,  he 
took  command  of  his  train  and  reached  Salt 
Lake  City  early  in  the  month  of  October.  Dur- 
ing his  absence,  another  child  was  born  to  him, 
a  circumstance  which  almost  resulted  in  the 
death  of  the  mother. 

"In  January,  1863,''  he  says,  'T  was  married 
on  the  same  day  to  Mary  Ellen  Wolfenden  and 
May  Bain.    The  ceremony  was  performed  by 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  145 

Daniel  H.  Wells  in  the  Endowment  House  at 
Salt  Lake  City/' 

It  must  have  seemed  to  John  R.  Murdock  in 
those  early  days  that  his  life  was  to  be  devoted 
wholly  to  the  service  of  others.  For  the  most 
part,  his  home  consisted  largely  of  a  wagon- 
box,  and  perhaps  most  of  the  tim.e  he  was 
crowded  even  out  of  that,  and  forced  to  take 
shelter  beneath  it  and  between  the  wheels,  that 
is,  when  he  was  not  required  to  give  up  such  a 
shelter  for  the  comfort  of  others. 

The  spring  of  1863  brought  another  call, 
and,  with  the  same  fidelity  that  had  charac- 
terized his  devotion  to  the  Church,  he  respond- 
ed with  promptness.  It  is  a  pleasing  tribute  to 
the  life  and  character  of  John  R.  Murdock  to 
say  that,  as  he  recounts  the  experiences  and  in- 
cidents of  those  trying  times,  he  never  once 
speaks  of  a  hardship  or  a  sacrifice.  What  he 
remembers  about  that  time,  and  that  about 
which  he  takes  the  greatest  pride  is  that  he  was 
able  to  do  it.  His  experiences,  his  emigration 
training  of  1863,  are  worthy  of  quotation  at 
some  length.  They  reveal  the  ambitions  of  the 
man  and  show  how  well  he  loved  to  excel  in 


10 


146  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

action;  for  John  R.  Murdock  was  more  emi- 
nently a  man  of  deeds  than  of  words. 

Recounting  the  experiences  of  1863,  he  says  : 
"There  were  ten  Church  trains  of  fifty  wagons 
each.  Among  the  men  called  to  act  as  captains 
was  W.  B.  Preston.  I  was  partial  to  him 
then,  and  have  always  been  since.  He  was  a 
little  ambitious,  and  I  w^as  ambitious  also.  He 
remarked  to  Bishop  Hunter,  who  had  general 
charge  of  the  emigration,  that  he  was  going  to 
lead  all  the  other  trains  down  and  back  again. 
Bishop  Hunter  knew  what  I  had  done  in  past 
seasons,  and  was  very  much  pleased  with  what 
he  considered  my  success  in  handling  teams 
and  in  helping  emigrants.  He  was,  perhaps,  a 
little  partial  to  me  and  so  he  told  me  when  I 
met  him  at  the  mouth  of  Echo  Canyon  what 
W.  B.  Preston  had  said  to  him.  Brother  Pres- 
ton being  already  three  days  ahead  of  me  with 
his  teams.  Bishop  Hunter,  perhaps,  meant  by 
his  words  to  give  me  both  a  warning  and  a 
challenge.  He  evidently  did  not  want  me 
'beaten.* 

"I  overtook  Brother  Preston  after  we  had 
traveled  about  three  hundred  miles.  After  that 
I   was  sometimes  ahead  and     sometimes    he 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  147 

would  be  in  the  lead.  However,  I  had  resolved 
in  my  mind  to  outgeneral  him  and  to  do  it  hon- 
orably and  without  injury  to  our  teams.  When 
we  made  our  last  deposit  of  supplies  at  Wood 
River,  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles 
this  side  of  Florence,  I  saw  that  he  intended  to 
make  good  his  word;  and  I  should,  perhaps, 
have  allowed  him  to  go  in  ahead  of  me  without 
any  particular  exertion  on  my  part  to  prevent 
it,  had  it  not  been  for  what  he  said  to  Bishop 
Hunter.  Brother  Preston  made  longer  marches 
than  usual  and  arrived  first  at  Loup  Fork,  a 
branch  of  the  Platte  River.  There  we  had  to 
cross  by  ferry.  I  planned  to  pass  him  at  that 
point  by  crossing  the  river  first.  I  did  it  in 
this  way:  When  my  train  reached  the  river, 
he  had  all  his  across  the  ferry  except  twelve 
wagons.  The  river  was  low.  Upon  making 
necessary  inquiries,  I  found  that  by  taking  a 
certain  direction  in  the  river  below  the  ferry 
down  to  a  given  point  on  an  island  and  then 
turning  at  a  certain  angle  up  the  river,  I  could 
reach  a  landing  on  the  other  side  near  a  Cot- 
tonwood tree.  Before  starting,  however,  I 
rode  up  to  the  ferryman  to  make  some  in- 
quiries.    Some  of  Preston's  men  jokingly  re- 


148  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

marked  that  they  thought  they  had  lost  me. 
In  reply  I  told  them  I  thought  I  was  good  for 
the  home  stretch.  They  then  had  no  idea  what 
my  plans  were. 

''I  called  the  ferryman  aside  and  asked  him  if 
there  were  not  a  contract  between  him  and 
Mr.  Little,  who  was  then  a  Church  agent,  that 
the  crossing  of  the  river  ferry  both  going  and 
coming  would  be  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  for 
each  wagon.  He  replied  that  there  was,  and 
that  it  would  be  just  the  same  for  my  train 
whether  I  ferried  or  not.  I  said,  'all  right,' 
and  then  took  to  the  river.  My  whole  train 
crossed  without  any  trouble,  incident  or  acci- 
dent. When  we  were  all  over.  Brother  Pres- 
ton had  still  ten  wagons  to  ferry  across,  and 
he  saw  that  I  had  out-generaled  him.  We 
Avere  then  about  eighty  miles  from  Florence, 
and  the  important  thing  was  to  keep  ahead. 
Being  well  acquainted  with  the  road  and  wa- 
tering places,  I  took  advantage  of  suitable 
camp  grounds.  The  first  night  Brother  Pres- 
ton was  behind  us,  as  I  thought  he  should  be. 

"Here  I  wish  to  say  that  it  is  my  belief  that 
I  made  the  best  time  with  ox-teams  that  was 
ever  made  on  this  continent  under  similar  cir- 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  149 

cumstances.  It  was  in  the  long  days  of  June 
and  the  weather  was  not  excessively  hot.  Our 
oxen  were  well  'seasoned'  and  in  good  condi- 
tion to  travel.  We  made  forty  miles  the  second 
day  from  Loup  Fork.  That  brought  us  to  Elk 
Horn,  twenty  miles  from  Florence.  There  were 
at  one  time  fifty  men  living  who  could  con- 
firm the  truth  of  the  above  statement,  and 
there  are  some  now  living  w^ho  will  remem- 
ber this  record. 

''We  reached  Florence  a  half  a  day  in  ad- 
vance of  Preston's  train.  On  our  arrival  we 
found  ready  for  emigration  about  seven  hun- 
dred Saints,  a  ship  load  of  emigrants.  That 
number  was  sufficient  to  load  my  train,  which 
was  consequently  loaded  at  once.  This  caused 
Brother  Preston  a  delay  of  five  weeks,  as  he 
had  to  wait  for  the  next  ship  load  before  he 
could  leave  with  his  train." 

This  circumstance  related  by  him  is  given  at 
considerable  length,  as  it  shows  the  inherent 
disposition  of  the  man  to  excel  in  whatever  he 
undertook.  The  fact  that  he  arrived  in  Salt 
Lake  City  weeks  ahead  of  his  old-time  friend, 
W.  B.  Preston,  was  something  that  always  en- 
livened his  spirit  in  after  life  whenever  the 


150  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

pleasantries  of  those  days  were  talked  over. 
Bishop  Hunter  also  must  have  had  faith  in 
John  R.  Murdock  when  he  warned  him  that 
he  would  have  a  strong  competitor  in  the  field 
for  honors  among  the  emigrant  trains  of  that 
season.  No  doubt  Bishop  Hunter  felt  some 
satisfaction  when  the  man  who  enjoyed  both 
his  love  and  his  confidence  made  good  the  ex- 
pectations which  the  venerable  Bishop  had  for 
him. 

His  home  coming  that  year  was  not  without 
its  sadness,  for  he  not  only  found  his  wife  in 
delicate  health,  but  his  son  Orrice  died  not  long 
after  his  return.  The  spring  of  1864,  like  clock 
work,  brought  with  it  a  new  summons  to  an 
old  service.  This  time  he  was  called  to  take  a 
mule  and  horse  train  across  the  plains  to  the 
Missouri  River.  In  this  train  there  were 
about  seventy-five  wagons,  some  of  which  were 
private  conveyances  that  were  taking  President 
D.  H.  Wells  and  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  with 
their  families,  to  the  mission  field  in  England. 
The  journey  was  made  without  any  incidents 
worthy  of  special  mention. 

Of  that  trip  he  says:  "The  south  fork 
of  the  Platte     was     high,     and     we    had     a 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  151 

dreadful  time  in  crossing  it.  We  reached  the 
Missouri  river,  about  six  miles  above  Nebraska 
City,  On  reaching  that  city  we  made  our  pur- 
chases and  loaded  up  with  freight  and  emi- 
grants. We  remained  at  Nebraska  City  about 
ten  days  and  then  commenced  our  journey  for 
Salt  Lake  City.  The  first  night  out,  our 
horses  stampeded  and  scattered  all  over  the 
country.  It  took  us  four  days  to  find  them 
and  get  them  together  again.  After  that  we 
were  frequently  threatened  with  a  repetition 
of  a  similar  experience.  We  consequently 
had  to  keep  men  mounted  all  the  time  to  pre- 
vent another  stampede. 

"One  who  has  never  seen  animals  stampede 
can  scarcely  understand  the  nature  of  it,  nor 
how  impossible  it  is  to  stop  a  stampede  when 
once  it  begins.  The  horses  and  mules  would 
all  be  scattered  over  quite  an  area  of  ground 
quietly  feeding  and  at  any  little  noise  they 
would  all  jump  together  and  away  they  would 
go  like  a  flash.  We  continued  our  journey,  and 
at  the  south  fork  of  the  Platte  we  were  over- 
taken by  two  families.  One  was  that  of  Judge 
Gilchrist.  They  had  made  forced  marches  to 
reach  us  and  to  travel  in  our  company  to  Utah. 


152  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

On  our  way  home  I  was  met  at  the  mouth  of 
Echo  canyon  by  my  devoted  wife  Almira.  Up- 
on reaching  Salt  Lake  City  and  unloading  my 
train,  I  returned  with  her  to  Lehi." 

Speaking  of  these  ''emigrant  days,"  John  R. 
Murdock  says,  more  in  a  spirit  of  satisfaction 
than  in  boasting:  "I  think  I  am  safe  in  say- 
ing that  I  brought  more  emigrants  to  Utah 
than  did  any  other  one  man.  I  was  also  most 
successful  with  my  teams  and  lost  but  very 
few." 

He  may  easily  be  excused  for  entertaining 
a  feeling  of  pride  over  such  a  record.  Those  days 
of  emigration  responsibilities  characterized 
John  R.  Murdock  as  a  man  of  affairs — a  man 
fitted  by  nature  and  experience  for  a  great  va- 
riety of  duties  and  responsibilities.  This  trip 
of  1864  was  made  when  he  was  forty-four 
years  of  age.  Certainly  there  was  nothing  in 
his  life  from  childhood  to  this  fulness  of  his 
manhood  that  could  in  any  way  be  regarded  as 
a  rut.  Experience  and  schooling  made  him 
pre-eminently  a  well-qualified  man  for  those 
days.  Thus  far  in  life  there  had  been  no  fail- 
ure on  his  part  to  limit  the  confidence  of  the 


LIFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  153 

leaders  of  the  Church  in  the  trust  that  might  be 
reposed  in  the  man. 

In  those  days  the  Church  was  growing  rap- 
idly. New  counties  were  in  process  of  form- 
ation and  men  of  genius  and  leadership  were 
needed  as  much  in  these  new  and  growing 
counties  as  they  were  needed  upon  the  plains. 
John  R.  Murdock  had  demonstrated  his  ability 
to  preside  over  people  on  camp-grounds  and  in 
emigrant  trains.  Could  he  preside  over  them 
in  their  newly-chosen  homes  where  they  were 
to  enjoy  greater  comforts  and  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  individual  initiation?  He  could  lead  in 
those  peculiar  experiences  which  had  fallen  to 
his  lot  from  childhood.  Success,  however,  in 
leadership  under  trying  circumstances  is  one 
of  the  best  evidences  of  leadership  in  the  wider 
opportunities  and  broader  fields  of  life.  Up  to 
this  age  of  life  he  had  lived  in  the  enjoyment 
of  a  pre-eminent  confidence  which  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Church  had  always  shown  him. 
Nothing  had  occurred  to  limit  that  confidence, 
and  what  they  thought  of  him  then  is  shown  by 
the  honors  that  fell  to  him  later  in  life. 


154  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LIFE   IN  BEAVER 

In  the  fall  of  1864  the  settlement  of  various 
counties  throughout  the  territory  had  become 
so  rapid,  and  the  growth  of  the  various  towns 
so  great,  that  satisfactory  presiding  officers 
were  in  great  demand.  Beaver  City  and  the 
outlying  districts,  in  that  year,  needed  a  man 
whose  influence  would  promote  harmony  and 
whose  leadership  would  be  sufficiently  strong 
to  bring  the  contending  elements  together. 
There  were  circumstances  in  the  settlement, 
growth,  and  environments  of  the  country 
there  which  required  not  only  an  upright,  cap- 
able man,  but  a  man  of  discerning  judgment 
and  tactful  methods.  "It  gave  me  a  severe 
shock,"  said  John  R.  Murdock,  'Svhen  upon 
invitation  I  entered  the  office  of  President 
Young  and  learned  that  he  wanted  me  to  be 
the  Bishop  of  Beaver.'' 

In  Lehi,  in  those  early  days,  a  strong  class 
of  men  had  gathered — men  who  subsequently 
figured  prominently  in    the     history    of     the 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  155 

Church — men  Hke  x\bram  Hatch,  Canute  Pe- 
terson, John  R.  Murdock,  and  others.  Natur- 
ally, there  sprang  up  among  them  feelings  of 
friendship  and  mutual  good  will.  It  was  the 
boast  of  the  people  in  Lehi  in  later  years  that 
the  little  community  had  been  honored  by  the 
call  of  so  many  presiding  men  from  its  midst. 
One  might  very  safely  have  predicted  that 
John  R.  Murdock  would  receive  some  such  re- 
sponsibility. 

"I  was  received  very  kindly  and  apparently 
very  favorably  by  the  people,  who  expressed  a 
willingness  that  I  should  come  and  preside  over 
them."  After  looking  over  the  situation,  he  re- 
turned to  Lehi,  where  he  gathered  his  cattle 
and  took  them  to  his  new  home  to  winter. 
However,  he  remained  at  Lehi  through  most 
of  the  winter  of  1864  and  65,  and  in  May  re- 
turned to  his  new  home,  and  by  the  fall  of 
that  year  had  all  his  family  with  him  prepar- 
atory to  another  beginning  which  he  was  to 
make  in  life.  "I  bought  a  farm  and  some  town 
lots  and  built  houses  for  my  family  to  live  in. 
I  also  immediately  set  about  building  school- 
houses,  a  meeting  house,  and  other  public 
buildings.    I  w^as  very  zealous  in  this  labor  and 


156  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

carried  a  great  part  of  the  responsibility  of  it 
myself." 

His  appointment,  however,as  Bishop  brought 
with  it  a  general  responsibility  of  looking  after 
the  welfare  of  all  the  settlements  in  the  county. 
And  when,  therefore,  after  about  ten  years  all 
the  settlements  of  the  county  were  organized 
into  a  stake,  John  R.  Murdock  was  chosen  its 
President.  From  the  outset  he  found  the  peo- 
ple considerably  divided  into  factions,  but  he 
insisted  that  he  was  the  Bishop  of  all  of  them 
and  kept  himself  aloof  from  factional  interests 
and  individual  favoritism.  His  position  was  a 
delicate  one,  as  Beaver  was  then,  as  it  has  since 
been,  made  up  of  a  great  diversity  of  elements. 

In  those  early  days  the  southern  settlements 
were  considerably  removed  from  the  center  of 
commerce.  One  of  the  first  problems  which 
confronted  Bishop  Murdock  was  to  learn  and 
make  available  the  best  resources  of  the  people 
in  that  community.  Beaver,  like  most  other 
parts  of  the  Territory,  offered  opportunities 
for  cattle  and  sheep,  but  its  water  supply  was 
limited,  and  the  farming  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple could  not  be  made  very  extensive.  How- 
ever, he  set  himself  to  work  at  figuring  out 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  157 

every  available  resource.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore he  organized  a  co-operative  woolen  fac- 
tory with  a  capital  stock  of  forty-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  subsequently  a  mercantile  co-oper- 
ative institution  with  a  capital  stock  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  During  these  times,  the  cat- 
tle interests  of  John  R.  Murdock  greatly  in- 
creased, and  his  horses,  sheep,  and  cattle,  to 
whose  care  he  gave  scrupulous  attention, 
brought  means  at  his  command. 

In  those  early  days  he  was  fortunate  in 
gathering  arovmd  him  men  of  good  judgment 
and  loyal  friendship.  One  of  these  men  whose 
support  was  always  valuable  and  whose  friend- 
ship he  appreciated  was  M.  L.  Shepherd,  a 
man  of  vast  energies  and  financial  abilities. 
Murdock  and  Shepherd,  who  had  much  in 
common  in  native  ability  and  experience,  saw 
eye  to  eye.  They  were  quick  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  resources  about  them'.  They  ac- 
cumulated wealth  and  became  the  leading  spir- 
its in  the  establishment  of  those  co-operative 
institutions  which  supplied  labor  and  devel- 
oped commerce  of  the  community.  Speaking 
of  the  factory  the  former  said:  "This  insti- 
tution has  always  been  a  credit  to  the  people 


158  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

and  has  proven  a  great  benefit  to  them  both 
by  supplying  good  articles  of  goods,  and  work 
for  the  people." 

"In  those  early  days,  we  had  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  with  the  Indians,  as  they  were  con- 
stantly driving  off  our  stock/'  Speaking  of 
himself  and  others,  he  says :  "We  established 
an  outpost  on  the  Sevier  river  called  Fort 
Stanford.  This  we  furnished  with  supplies 
and  men  and  were  obliged  to  keep  it  up  for 
our  protection.  We  organized  companies  of 
militia  and  I  was  chosen  lieutenant-colonel. 

"Among  other  incidents  of  those  times  that 
took  place  with  the  Indians,  there  is  one  I  must 
relate.  The  people  of  Beaver  had  come  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  roof  on 
the  meeting-house  and  nearly  all  of  the  men 
in  the  county  were  assisting  in  the  work  when 
word  came  to  us  that  the  Indians  had  attacked 
John  P.  Lee's  home,  located  on  South  Creek, 
about  eight  miles  from  Beaver.  The  word 
was  brought  to  us  by  two  little  children,  one, 
Charley  Lee,  about  twelve  years  old,  the  other, 
a  little  girl  by  the  name  of  Baker,  a  child  per- 
haps ten  years  of  age.  Mrs.  Lee  had  put  them 
out  of  the  back  of  the  house  opposite  the  side 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  159 

attacked  by  the  Indians.  The  children  went 
through  the  brush  and  consequently  were  not 
seen  by  the  Indians.  The  little  ones  ran  all  the 
way  to  Beaver.  There  was  the  greatest  pos- 
sible haste  made  and  men  rushed  to  the  scene 
as  soon  as  they  heard  the  news.  They  se- 
cured their  horses  and  equipments  and  were 
off  within  twenty  minutes.  I  took  with  me  in 
my  buggy  a  surgeon,  as  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Jos.  L.  White,  who  lived  at  that  time  on  South 
Creek,  had  been  wounded  in  the  shoulder  by 
a  shot  from  one  of  the  Indians'  guns.  The 
Indians  had  surrounded  the  house,  which  had 
a  lumber  roof,  which  they  set  on  fire.  While 
Lee  stood  at  the  door  with  his  large  blunder- 
buss, keeping  the  Indians  out  and  resisting  the 
Indians  who  were  trying  to  break  in,  Mrs. 
Lee  succeeded  in  putting  out  the  fire  with  her 
pans  of  milk.  The  situation  had  been  very 
critical  before  we  reached  the  scene.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Lee  both  displayed  remarkable  courage 
and  presence  of  mind,  but  before  we  reached 
the  spot  the  Indians  became  frightened  and 
withdrew.  Two  of  them,  however,  were  killed 
by  shots  from  Lee's  gun  and  pistol.  We  took 
the  wounded  man  and  the  Lee  family,  with  all 


160  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

their  household  effects,  back  with  us  to  Beav- 
er/' 

The  trouble  of  longest  duration  with  the 
Indians  was  their  practice  of  stock  stealing. 
Cattle  and  horses  were  often  about  the  only 
resource  that  many  people  had,  and  their  loss 
from  the  depredation  of  the  Indians  was  often 
a  source  of  distress.  Several  expeditions  were 
organized  against  these  troublesome  outlaws; 
and  large  expeditions,  time,  and  money  were 
required  to  stamp  out  a  practice  that  was  so 
destructive  to  their  interests. 

In  the  course  of  time,  in  the  district  of  coun- 
try lying  west  of  Beaver  City,  mining  interests 
were  developed  and  markets  were  opened  for 
the  products  of  both  the  farm  and  the  ranch. 
The  growth  of  the  town  and  the  demands  of 
the  mines  gave  rise  to  new  resources — re- 
sources that  John  R.  Murdock  was  one  of  the 
first  to  discover  and  appropriate. 

"E.  W.  Thompson  and  I,"  he  says,  "sent 
teams  to  the  eastern  frontier,  where  we  pur- 
chased the  first  saw-mill  ever  brought  to  Beav- 
er or  to  the  southern  part  of  Utah.  We  put 
it  up  on  South  Creek,  where  it  worked  very 
successfully  for  a  number  of  years.   The  coun- 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  161 

try,  however,  had  no  extensive  forests,  and 
the  lumber  trade  could  not,  therefore,  continue 
very  long.  The  saw-mill  answered  the  purposes 
of  those  times  and  supplied  the  lumber  neces- 
sary for  improving  the  town  and  multiplying 
new  homes.  It  was  an  additional  factor  in  the 
employment  of  both  capital  and  labor.'' 

A  matter  of  some  importance  to  the  people 
in  the  early  days  of  Beaver  was  its  town  gov- 
ernment. John  R.  Murdock  was  called  to  pre- 
side over  the  religious  destinies  of  the  place. 
Beaver  City  had  no  charter.  Upon  his  elec- 
tion to  the  territorial  legislature  in  1867,  he 
succeeded  in  getting  a  bill  through,  giving  to 
his  home  town  a  charter,  in  consequence  of 
which  a  municipal  government  was  organized. 
There  was  some  friction  at  first,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  people  were  divided,  but  he  fin- 
ally succeeded  in  harmonizing  most  of  them. 

Speaking  of  his  legislative  experience  he 
says :  "I  was  elected  to  the  legislature  for 
four  consecutive  terms.  I  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Territorial  Convention  over  which 
General  Barnum  presided.  The  object  of  that 
convention  was  to  draft  a  state  constitution." 

Only  four  years  had  elapsed  since  his  trip 
U 


162  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

across  the  plains  in  1864.  They  were  years 
of  a  busy  life  in  which  he  was  the  leading  fac- 
tor in  the  establishment  of  industrial  life  in 
Beaver  City.  They  were  years  devoted  to  the 
care  and  comforts  of  his  family,  a  period  in 
which  he  was  given  opportunity  to  discover 
and  develop  resources  necessary  for  the  well- 
being  and  happiness  of  the  people  over  whom 
he  presided. 

At  the  close  of  four  years  after  his  call  to 
Beaver,  and  in  the  spring  of  1868,  he  was 
called  to  conduct  a  train  of  seventy-five  wag- 
ons to  Laramie  City  for  the  purpose  of  bring- 
ing to  Utah  the  emigrants  who  were  arriving 
there.  By  this  time  the  railroad  had  made  its 
way  across  the  plains  and  was  ascending  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
days  of  emigrant  trains  were  soon  to  be  a  thing 
of  the  past.  But  the  later  chapters,  as  well  as 
the  earlier  ones  in  John  R.  Murdock's  pio- 
neer experiences  in  Utah,  w^ere  filled  with  ac- 
counts of  emigration  companies  and  episodes 
of  a  trying  character  on  the  plains. 

Speaking  of  this,  his  last  experience  of 
that  kind,  he  said :  "I  had  seventy-five  wag- 
ons in  my  train.    Fifty  of  them  belonged  to  the 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  163 

Church,  and  twenty-five  were  private  convey- 
ances. That  year,  as  I  remember,  six  other 
companies  were  called  for  a  similar  purpose. 
They  were  ahead  of  mine  on  the  way  down, 
but  they  consisted  of  only  twenty-five  wagons 
each.  It  was  the  custom  among  those  com- 
panies to  load  in  the  order  of  their  arrival.  Of 
the  two  trains  ahead  of  me,  Joseph  Rawlins 
was  in  command  of  one  and  Chester  Love- 
land  of  the  other.  After  loading  their  trains 
they  set  out  for  home.  Just  as  they  were  leav- 
ing, a  shipload  of  passengers  arrived  by  train 
at  Laramie.  I,  therefore,  loaded  my  train  at 
once  and  followed  the  advanced  companies. 
The  authorities  had  advised  us  to  break  a  new 
road  for  about  one  hundred  miles  over  the  old 
emigrant  road  on  the  lower  waters.  The  object 
of  this  was  to  avoid  the  railroad  men  who 
were  then  engaged  in  large  numbers  in  the 
construction  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
The  two  companies  in  advance  followed  the 
new  road,  but  my  company  was  so  large,  and 
some  of  my  teams  were  so  heavily  loaded  that  I 
decided,  after  due  deliberation,to  follow  the  old 
road.  This  seemed  under  all  the  circumstances 
about  the  only  thing  that  I  could  do,  and  I 


164  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

kept  along  the  old  Bitter  Creek  route.  The 
water  of  that  creek  was  correctly  named,  for 
it  was  bitter  indeed.  Fortunately,  I  had  two 
loads  of  empty  barrels,  which  I  was  taking  as 
a  part  of  my  freight.  Before  starting  out,  I 
took  the  precaution  to  fill  these  with  good 
water  for  the  use  of  the  emigrants. 

''Before  Rawlins  left  with  his  company  I  vis- 
ited his  camp  to  bid  him  good-bye  and  speak 
encouraging  words  to  the  emigrants.  He  re- 
marked that  as  I  had  a  large  train  and  my  pas- 
sengers had  not  yet  arrived  he  would  reach 
Salt  Lake  and  forget  all  about  his  trip  before 
I  got  there.     'Yes,  I  suppose  so,'  I  replied." 

That  was  just  the  kind  of  a  remark  to  put 
the  spur  deep  in  the  flesh  of  John  R.  Mur- 
dock;  competition  always  gave  a  healthy  im- 
pulse to  his  efforts.  He  naturally  loved  to 
excel,  wanted  to  do  greater  things  than  others, 
and  was  always  excessively  proud  of  a  good 
record.  All  things  being  equal,  his  determina- 
tion not  to  be  outdone  never  forsook  him.  If 
there  was  anything  in  this  world  he  knew,  per- 
haps as  well  as  any  man,  it  was  how  to  get  the 
best  in  a  team  out  of  it.  He  knew  how  to 
keep  things  going.    He  could  keep  in  mind  at 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  165 

the  same  time  a  large  number  of  things  to  be 
done  immediately,  and  he  rarely  ever  lost  his 
presence  of  mind.  He  foresaw  danger  and 
provided  against  it,  and  made  allowances  for 
every  possible  contingency  which  a  fertile  mind 
could  create. 

Note  what  he  says  of  this  return  trip  to 
Utah :  ''We  did  not  have  to  wait  for  our  load, 
and  we  made  very  good  time  down  the  Bitter 
Creek  road  and  across  Green  River,  where  we 
intercepted  the  old  pioneer  road.  On  our  ar- 
rival there,  we  learned  that  Rawlins  and  Love- 
land  had  not  yet  passed.  They  had  been  de- 
tained by  the  heaviness  of  their  loads  and  by 
the  Indians,  who  had  driven  away  some  of 
their  stock.  The  stock,  however,  they  succeed- 
ed in  recovering,  but  not  without  delay.  We 
pushed  on  with  our  train  and  reached  Salt 
Lake  City  without  any  serious  accident  except 
that  one  boy  broke  his  leg.  The  emigrants 
were  unloaded  in  Salt  Lake  and  I  returned 
home  to  Beaver  with  my  private  loads  of 
freight." 

Besides  the  experiences  of  a  pioneer  and 
those  of  a  legislator,  a  new  duty  came  to  Pres- 
ident Murdock  in  the  appointment  from  the 


166  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

Territorial  Legislature  which  made  him  the 
probate  judge  of  Beaver  county.  This  posi- 
tion he  held  for  four  years.  During  that  time, 
he  entered  the  town  sites  of  Greenville,  Adams- 
ville,  and  Minersville.  This  authority  was 
conferred  by  the  territorial  law  on  the  pro- 
bate judge. 

In  the  winter  of  1874,  he  again  took  up  his 
work  in  the  legislature.  This  work  made  him 
more  or  less  familiar  with  conditions  existing 
in  every  part  of  the  territory.  The  work  also 
brought  him  in  contact  with  the  leading  men  of 
those  times,  and  enabled  him  to  bring  back  to 
his  people  in  Beaver  the  experiences,  sugges- 
tions, and  observations  of  others  similarly  lad- 
en with  responsibilities.  While  he  was  gen- 
erous in  giving  out  to  others  the  results  of 
his  own  experiences,  he  was  equally  anxious  to 
gain  information  from  every  available  source. 
He  made  inquiries  about  the  best  breeds  of 
stock,  about  the  best  implements  for  the  farm, 
about  the  best  methods  of  developing  the  re- 
sources which  he  thought  were  within  the 
reach  of  his  people.  He  not  only  possessed 
the  rare  faculty  of  accumulating  means  from 
the  resources  about  him,  but  he  was  zealous  in 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  167 

urging  the  people  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
very  same  opportunities  that  came  to  him.  He 
rejoiced  in  the  prosperity  and  progress  of 
others,  and  he  therefore  did  much  to  promote 
the  spirit  of  industry  and  prudence  among 
those  over  whom  he  presided. 

However  successful  the  life  of  John  R. 
Murdock  may  appear  in  its  material  aspects, 
however  well  he  performed  every  duty  as- 
signed to  him,  and  however  enviable  his  repu- 
tation to  others  may  seem,  he  nevertheless  had 
his  own  afflictions.  He  learned  to  his  sorrow 
that  there  are  troubles  enough  in  this  world  to 
go  round,  and  that  as  a  rule^  each  man  has  his 
share.  One  after  another  of  his  children  died, 
and  with  their  precious  little  bodies  he  buried 
ambitions  and  fond  hopes  which  he  had  cher- 
ished concerning  them.  As  one  reads  the 
story  of  his  life,  of  the  hardships  he  endured, 
of  his  exhausting  journeys  and  bodily  priva- 
tions, one  can  scarcely  withhold  the  thought 
that  may  be,  after  all,  the  remarkable  physical 
energies  which  were  lavishly  given  for  the 
safety  and  welfare  of  others,  were  indirectly 
the  physical  disinheritance  of  his  own  off- 
spring; and  yet  he  has  lived  on  to  a  remark- 


168  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

able  old  age  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  sturdy 
and  splendid  manhood. 

In  1878  he  was  called  to  mourn  the  loss  of 
his  first  wife,  the  honorable  mother  of  a  large 
family,  though  at  the  time  of  her  death  only 
forty-nine  years  old. 

Throughout  all  his  maturer  years  he  had  re- 
sponded to  a  variety  of  calls  which  he  had  al- 
ways sacredly  regarded  as  missions.  In  1880 
a  new  mission  came  to  him.  It  was  a  call,  up- 
on the  recommendation  of  John  Morgan,  to 
preach  the  gospel  in  the  Southern  States.  In 
the  experiences  of  his  mission  in  Tennessee  he 
mentions  the  acquaintances  he  made  and  refers 
to  the  work  of  B.  H.  Roberts  and  James  T. 
Hammond  in  that  mission.  It  has  been  said 
in  this  biography  that  President  Murdock  took 
pleasure  in  the  thought  of  the  things  he  did, 
but  he  took  no  less  pleasure  in  the  friends  he 
made.  It  was  always  a  source  of  gratifica- 
tion to  him  to  claim  the  friendship  of  men  and 
women  whose  character  and  integrity  he  es- 
teemed. His  friendships  were,  after  all,  more 
valuable  acquisitions  than  the  accumulation  of 
wealth.  In  speaking  not  long  since  about  the 
remarkable  experiences  and  the  life  of  Presi- 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  169 

dent  Murdock  the  writer  was  told  by  the  party 
with  whom  he  was  conversing  that  he  was 
personally  not  very  well  acquainted  with  John 
R.  Murdock.  What  he  knew  of  him  he  knew 
chiefly  through  his  old  and  intimate  friend, 
Erastus  Snow.  ''Erastus  Snow,"  said  he,  "es- 
teemed President  Murdock  as  one  of  his  best 
and  staunchest  friends.''  Strong  friendships 
that  last  throughout  a  man's  life — friendships 
with  men  likewise  tried  and  true  are  perhaps 
the  best  factors  in  determining  the  inmost 
qualities  in  the  life  of  a  man. 

"From  Tennessee  I  went  to  Nauvoo,  111.,  to 
visit  my  sister  Julia.  She  had  been  very  un- 
fortunate in  her  second  marriage.  I  found 
her  at  the  home  of  a  Mr.  Moffet,  whose  wife 
took  care  of  her  with  a  sisterly  tenderness. 
Julia's  foster  mother,  Emma,  had  died,  and  she 
was  left  without  a  home  and  under  the  most 
distressing  circumstances.  She  was  suffering 
from  a  cancer  in  her  right  breast.  This  was 
caused  by  a  severe  blow  that  she  had  received. 
I  remained  with  her  about  one  month,  but  on 
leaving  I  left  sufficient  means  to  provide  for 
her  and  to  cover  the  expenses  of  her  burial 
and  of  a  tombstone.     She  died  soon  after  my 


170  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

departure  and  was  buried  in  the  Catholic  cem- 
etery, having  been  converted  to  that  faith 
through  her  husband's  influence.  On  leaving 
Nauvoo  I  returned  to  Tennessee  and  continued 
to  travel  among  the  people  there  until  the  year 
1881,  when  I  was  released  and  returned  home, 
where  I  resumed  my  ecclesiastical  duties." 

Soon  after  his  return  from  the  Southern 
States,  the  Edmunds  Bill  of  1882  was  passed. 
The  law,  however,  was  not  enforced  with  re- 
spect to  the  offenses  against  polygamy  until 
the  latter  part  of  the  year  1884,  when  the  so- 
called  raid  began.  For  four  years  the  most  en- 
ergetic and  drastic  measures  were  taken  to 
imprison  every  man  within  the  territory  who 
acknowledged  or  sustained  more  than  one  wife. 
The  courts  allowed  the  widest  scope  to  be  given 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  law  which  was 
aimed  exclusively  at  the  Mormon  people. 
Through  a  peculiar  combination  of  circum- 
stances John  R.  Murdock  escaped  prosecution, 
but  the  sympathy  which  he  manifested  for  his 
brethren  who  were  arrested  during  those  try- 
ing times  was  both  magnanimous  and  sincere. 
The  court  for  his  district  held  its  sessions  at 
Beaver  City.     Some  of  the  outlying  districts 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  171 

were  more  than  one  hundred  miles  from  this 
judicial  center.  A  regular  corps  of  deputy 
marshals  scoured  the  country  in  quest  of  poly- 
gamists  and  of  fees.  Men  and  their  wives 
were  brought  to  Beaver,  where  many  of  them 
were  strangers.  These  had  no  opportunities  to 
provide  themselves  with  assistance  and  they 
must  either  give  bonds  or  go  to  jail.  The  re- 
quirement of  the  court  in  the  matter  of  bonds 
was  strict.  Only  those  of  well-known  ability 
to  meet  financial  obligations  were  accepted. 
John  R.  Murdock's  financial  standing  in  Bea- 
ver was  first-class  and  he  was  ever  ready  to 
render  every  possible  assistance  to  his  unfor- 
tunate brethren,  and  went  on  the  bonds  of 
not  fewer  than  fifty  different  men.  Nor  was 
this  legal  and  financial  assistance  the  only  ex- 
pression of  his  kind-hearted  sympathy  toward 
those  in  distress.  The  hospitality  of  his  home 
was  a  source  of  comfort  and  consolation  to 
many.  The  fact  that  his  assistance  was  so  gen- 
erally sought  by  men  who  needed  bonds  is  a 
splendid  testimonial  of  the  confidence  that  his 
friends  in  southern  Utah  had  in  him.  They 
had  known  him  for  many  years  and  his  integ- 
rity and  generous  impulses  were  an  assurance 


172  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

that  he  would  come  to  their  relief  in  the  hour 
of  distress.  Many  a  man  well  remembers  that 
in  him  the  old  adage  was  fulfilled,  '*A  friend 
in  need  is  a  friend  indeed." 

John  R.  Murdock  for  many  years  of  his  life 
filled  one  of  the  most  trying  positions  of  any 
Stake  President  in  the  Church.  He  not  only 
had  the  opposing  elements,  and  some  of  them 
were  bitter  from  a  religious  point  of  view,  but 
he  also  had  more  or  less  of  the  contentious  ele- 
ment within  the  Church  to  reckon  with.  That, 
however,  which  w^as  not  least  among  the  diffi- 
cult problems  which  he  had  to  solve  was  his  re- 
lationship and  that  of  his  people  to  the  soldiers 
who,  two  miles  and  a  half  east  of  Beaver,  oc- 
cupied Fort  Cameron.  A  military  post  under 
ordinary  circumstances  so  near  a  community  is 
always  a  source  of  more  or  less  friction.  In 
his  case  the  difficulties  were  doubly  great.  The 
preservation  of  the  morals  of  the  people,  espe- 
cially those  of  the  young  people,  required  his 
careful,  constant  w^atch  care.  The  officers  at 
the  Fort  manifested  in  numerous  ways  their 
respect  for  the  religious  leader  of  the  com- 
munity near  which  the  soldiers  were  stationed. 
In  view   of  the   religious   differences   and  at 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  173 

times  the  great  unpopularity  of  the  Mormon 
people,  it  was  often  extremely  difficult  to  avoid 
contentions.  All  things  considered  it  may 
fairly  be  said  that  President  Murdock  conduct- 
ed himself  wisely  under  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances and  under  the  delicate  relations  which 
existed  between  citizens  and  soldiers. 

When,  later.  General  "Phil"  Sheridan  came 
to  Utah  and  visited  Fort  Cameron,  he  was  re- 
ceived by  the  officers  and  troops  at  Milford, 
the  railroad  terminus.  John  R.  Murdock  from 
the  days  of  his  Mormon  Battalion  experiences 
felt  a  special  pride  in  military  discipline.  He 
had  been  a  soldier  in  his  country's  service,  had 
undergone  severe  trials,  and  had  always  con- 
ducted himself  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make 
him'  proud  of  his  military  record.  Quite  a 
number  of  his  family  before  him  had  enjoyed 
distinguished  military  honors  and  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  he  inherited  military  tend- 
encies. 

As  he  had  been  a  soldier  in  the  service  of 
his  country  and  was  perhaps  the  most  con- 
spicuous citizen  in  the  community  at  Beaver, 
he  felt  it  a  pleasure  as  well  as  a  duty  to  wel- 
come  at    Milford    the    distinguished    military 


174  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

hero  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  The  General 
accepted  the  invitation  to  ride  in  President 
Murdock's  carriage  and  the  two  now  made 
their  way  to  Fort  Cameron. 

When  the  war  department  at  Washington 
finally  determined  to  abandon  Fort  Cameron, 
its  buildings  were  offered  for  sale  at  public 
auction.  John  R.  Murdock  felt  that  it  was 
very  desirable  that  these  buildings  and  the 
land,  as  soon  as  it  could  be  secured  from  the 
general  government,  be  devoted  to  some  pub- 
lic use.  He  therefore  enlisted  with  him'  the 
support  of  the  Church  and  the  aid  of  his  son- 
in-law,  Philo  T.  Farnsworth,  in  the  purchase 
of  the  buildings. 

The  government  had  expended  something 
like  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Fort,  which  occupied  a  beau- 
tiful spot  at  the  mouth  of  Beaver  Canyon. 
The  buildings  were  large  and  so  erected  as  to 
leave  a  broad  public  square  in  the  center  for 
parades  and  military  drills.  All  these  build- 
ings were  bid  in  by  the  above-named  parties 
at  the  modest  sum  of  forty-eight  hundred  dol- 
lars. Later,  President  Murdock  succeeded  in 
securing  the  title  to  the  land  upon  which  the 


LIFE  IN  BEAVER  175 

buildings  stood,  as  they  would  be  of  no  value 
without  it. 

A  guard  was  assigned  to  the  Fort  as  a  pro- 
tection against  the  vandalism  that  might  have 
soon  made  the  place  comparatively  worthless. 
As  soon  as  patents  for  the  land  were  secured 
steps  were  taken  to  make  some  disposition  of 
it  for  the  benefit  of  the  public.  It  was  finally 
detennined  by  these  two  liberal  and  patriotic 
citizens  to  contribute  their  share  of  Fort  Cam- 
eron to  the  Brigham  Young  Academy  of  Provo 
in  order  that  a  branch  school  of  that  institu- 
tion might  be  established  there.  The  gift  was 
gratefully  accepted,  and  the  organization  of 
the  Beaver  Branch  as  it  was  familiarly  known 
was  efiFected. 

The  school  opened  under  favorable  circum- 
stances ;  from  the  outset  there  were  something 
like  two  hundred  in  attendance  and  the  school 
yearly  increased  in  both  numbers  and  effici- 
ency. Nor  was  this  the  end  of  John  R.  Mur- 
dock's  efforts.  He,  with  a  few  other  leading 
men,  pledged  himself  to  render  financial  sup- 
port to  the  school  of  something  like  twelve 
hundred  dollars  annually  for  a  given  number 
of  years.    He  was  a  loyal  supporter  of  the  in- 


176  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

stitution,  and  manifested  a  special  pride  in  its 
progress,  and  was  liberal  in  the  expenditure  of 
means  for  its  growth. 

Much  of  his  time  in  subsequent  years  was 
given  to  the  improvement  of  the  buildings 
which  he  frequently  visited  and  whose  im- 
provement he  often  planned.  He  was  always 
on  hand  when  educational  men  visited  the 
school  and  showed  them  every  courtesy  and  at- 
tention. He  was  an  appreciative  man  and  was 
a  strong  admirer  of  good  quality  and  intellec- 
tual refinement  in  manhood  and  womanhood. 
From  the  day  of  its  dedication  by  Apostles  Ly- 
man and  Teasdale  he  worked  unceasingly  to 
promote  its  usefulness,  not  only  to  the  com- 
munities in  Beaver  County,  but  to  the  commu- 
nities throughout  southern  Utah. 

He  continued  to  preside  over  the  Beaver 
Stake  until  1892,  when,  to  the  surprise  of  the 
people  and  to  the  Church  leaders,  he  offered 
his  resignation.  He  was  sixty-six  years  of  age 
and  had  borne  the  burden  of  public  responsi- 
bilities in  a  most  liberal  manner  from  the  time 
that  he  entered  the  Mormon  Battalion.  All 
the  best  years  of  his  life  had  been  devoted  to 
his  Church  and  his  state  with  scrupulous  re- 


Life  in  beaver  i7? 

gard  for  claims  that  both  laid  upon  him. 
It  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  find  a  suitable 
man  to  succeed  him,  as  his  leadership  over  the 
people  was  pronounced,  both  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  financial  and  religious  interests. 
The  First  Presidency,  therefore,  accepted  his 
resignation  with  great  reluctance.  He  was, 
however,  in  his  retirement  universally  esteemed 
as  a  leader,  and  the  people  manifested  their  high 
regard  for  him  whenevet  there  was  an  oppor- 
tunity to  do  him  poHtical  honor. 


12 


178  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCIC 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE   EVENING  OF  LIFE 

After  laying  aside  the  public  cares  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  a  life  that  made  large  and 
constant  demands  upon  his  physical,  spiritual, 
and  intellectual  power,  he  felt  some  freedom  in 
moving  about  at  his  own  pleasure,  and  of  ren- 
dering service  wherever  and  whenever  an  op- 
portunity offered.  John  R.  Murdock,  while 
a  careful  man  in  the  administration  of  his  pri- 
vate affairs,  was  nevertheless  open-hearted  and 
generous  in  every  public  undertaking.  He  was 
kind  to  the  poor,  quick  to  respond  in  the  hour 
of  distress,  and  generous  to  all  classes.  A 
federal  officer  who  served  some  years  in  the 
district  of  Beaver  once  said  of  him :  "Whenever 
there  was  a  paper  passed  around  soliciting 
private  contributions,  it  was  first  taken  to  John 
R.  Murdock,  who  was  always  expected  to  head 
the  list.  Opposite  the  amount  contributed  w^as 
usually  found  the  word  paid.  The  officers  of 
the  court,  in  various  charities,  felt  compelled, 
through  a  sense  of  pride,  to  contribute  half  the 
amiount  given  by  a  Mormon  Bishop.    He  often 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  179 

placed  his  contribution  at  a  figure  which  his 
non-Mormon  friends  did  not  always  like  to 
meet  by  the  donation  of  one-half  that  given  by 
him'.  He  was  certainly  a  generous-spirited 
and  charitable  man/' 

His  interests  and  contributions  covered  a 
wide  field.  Not  least  among  his  contributions 
was  his  support  of  the  Temples.  In  these  build- 
ings he  felt  a  special  pride.  "To  the  Saint 
George  Temple,"  he  said,  ''I  subscribed  be- 
tween four  and  five  thousand  dollars ;  to  the 
Manti  Temple  I  gave  over  six  thousand ;  and 
to  the  Salt  Lake  Temple,  near  the  time  of  its 
completion,  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars,  in  addition  to  former  donations."  He 
was  one  of  the  body  of  men  w^ho  met  in  Salt 
Lake  City  in  1892,  at  a  special  meeting  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Church,  which  included  stake 
presidents,  to  take  into  consideration  the  best 
ways  and  means  for  the  completion  of  the  Salt 
Lake  Temple.  A  special  effort  was  put  forth 
to  bring  about  the  completion  of  that  edifice 
in  order  that  it  might  be  dedicated  in  the 
spring  of  1893.  To  finish  it,  something  like 
twenty  thousand  dollars  were  required.  At  a 
priesthood  meeting  the  matter  was  laid  before 


180  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

these  leading  men.  John  R«  Murdock  prompt- 
ly arose  and  suggested  that  those  present  on 
that  occasion  first  determine  what  they  them- 
selves could  do  before  appealing  to  the  people. 
President  Cannon  approved  the  suggestion  and 
asked  him  to  start  the  contribution.  This  he 
did  by  setting  the  pace  at  one  thousand  dol- 
lars. Thereupon  a  person  was  appointed  to 
go  through  the  audience  and  receive  the  con- 
tributions of  others.  President  Murdock  was 
then  asked  if  he  would  not  bear  the  expense 
of  one  of  the  three  beautiful  art  windows  in 
the  interior  of  the  Temple.  He  promptly  re- 
sponded in  the  affirmative,  and  gave  as  above 
mentioned  on  that  occasion  fifteen  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars.  When  there  is  taken  into 
consideration  his  years  of  gratuitous  service  to 
the  interests  of  the  Church  in  bringing  emi- 
grants to  the  valleys  of  the  mountains,  in  pro- 
viding ways  and  means  for  the  support  of  pub- 
lic institutions,  the  public-spirited  manner  in 
which  he  met  any  call  legitimately  laid  upon 
him,  it  will  be  conceded  that  few  men  in  Utah 
have  done  more  to  entitle  them'  to  the  respect 
of  the  people  than  he  has  done  throughout  a 
lifelong  service. 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  181 

From  the  time  that  John  R.  Murdock,  a 
mere  child,  had  been  consigned  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  strangers,  to  his  later  years  in  Utah, 
he  had  known  but  Httle  of  his  people  who  re- 
mained at  their  homes  in  Ohio.  He  was  a 
child,  and  therefore  not  of  much  consequence 
to  them,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  his 
lot  had  been  cast  with  an  unpopular  people. 
His  family  on  his  mother's  side  had  rendered 
a  considerable  military  service.  His  Uncle 
Henry  Clapp,  his  mother's  brother,  had  a  son, 
Major  William  H.  Clapp,  who  was  then  sta- 
tioned in  the  Sixteenth  United  States  Regi- 
ment at  Fort  Douglas.  About  the  time  of  his 
retirement  from  eccleiastical  services,  his  Un- 
cle Henry  came  to  Utah  for  the  purpose  of 
visiting  his  son,  the  major.  The  cousin  bore 
the  distinguished  honor  of  having  fought  in 
the  Union  Army  during  the  rebellion. 

While  in  Utah  his  uncle  paid  him  a  visit  in 
Beaver.  They  had  not  seen  each  other  for 
more  than  sixty-five  years.  The  prominence 
of  the  nephew  in  the  affairs  of  Utah  Territory 
made  him  a  worthy  object  of  honor  to  his 
Uncle  Henry  Clapp.  It  was  on  this  visit  that 
the  nephew  learned  of  the  Clapp  genealogy, 


182  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

which  had  been  followed  back  to  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, and  in  this  genealogical  record  the  family 
name  of  Clapp  was  traced  back  to  King  Ca- 
nute's court  in  England.  The  publications 
contained  the  names  of  ten  thousand  six  hun- 
dred people.  To  John  R.  Murdock  the  dis- 
covery of  this  record  was  a  matter  of  first  im- 
portance. After  his  resignation  from'  the  pres- 
idency of  Beaver  Stake,  he  was  ordained  a  pa- 
triarch. This  gave  him  not  only  the  opportunity 
to  perform  the  functions  of  his  new  calling, 
but  to  labor  in  the  Temples,  which  he  had 
helped  to  erect  for  the  salvation  of  his  kindred 
dead. 

In  the  evening  of  life  he  could  surrender 
himself  to  the  spiritual  enjoyment  that  comes 
from  associations  in  the  House  of  God.  To 
him  it  was  miraculously  marvelous  that  in  the 
hour  of  a  genealogical  need  the  publication  of 
such  a  family  record  was  brought  to  his  knowl- 
edge. 

He  was  one  of  those  who  in  1893  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  taking  part  in  the  dedication 
of  the  great  Salt  Lake  Temple,  which  for  so 
many  years  had  been  in  the  process  of  con- 
struction.   It  was  a  grand  occasion  in  his  life, 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  183 

an  occasion  in  which  his  family  could  partici- 
pate with  him.  His  oldest  daughter,  Mrs.  P. 
T.  Farnsworth,  had  moved  from  Milford  to 
Salt  Lake  City,  where  the  hospitality  of  her 
home  was  enjoyed  by  her  father. 

In  the  year  1892  John  R.  Murdock  was  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  the  Utah  Agricultural 
Commission  to  the  World's  Fair.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  in  September,  with  his  wife  Mary 
Ellen,  he  paid  a  visit  to  that  great  exposition. 

After  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  his  wife 
Mary  Ellen,  who  had  always  been  prominent 
in  the  counsels  of  his  family,  became  a  strong 
supporter  of  those  liberal  policies  which  char- 
acterized the  later  years  of  his  life.  Her  devo- 
tion to  the  Church  and  her  pride  in  its  material 
welfare  made  her  enthusiastic  over  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Temples.  In  educational  matters 
she  seconded  the  efforts  of  her  husband,  who 
did  so  much  to  establish  and  maintain  the 
academy  which  subsequently  bore  his  name. 
Mrs.  Mary  Ellen  Murdock  will  always  be 
gratefully  remembered  by  those  who  enjoyed 
the  hospitality  of  her  home  during  those  try- 
ing hours  when  men  and  women  were  sorely 
afflicted  by  the  persecutions  which  so  many  of 


184  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

the  people  had  to  bear  from  1884  to  1890. 
In  later  years  it  was  her  good  fortune  to  enjoy 
the  opportunities  of  visiting  with  her  husband 
many  of  the  early  land  marks  of  Church  His- 
tory, and  at  a  time  when  her  husband  felt  the 
need  of  her  companionship  and  care. 

She  had  accepted  the  principle  of  plural  mar- 
riage, which  she  consistently  supported  and 
faithfully  carried  out.  In  the  early  efforts  of 
members  of  the  Church  to  practice  a  belief 
against  the  traditions  of  centuries  and  the  sel- 
fishness of  human  nature,  her  faith  predomi- 
nated ;  and  in  the  evening  of  life,  after  all  the 
disturbances,  discords,  and  trials  of  her  earlier 
year  had  been  overcome,  she  saw  no  reason  to 
recant  or  doubt  the  principle  she  had  done  so 
much  to  perpetuate  and  honor.  On  her  jour- 
ney, therefore,  to  the  East,  her  testimony  was 
mingled  with  her  husband's  wherever  oppor- 
tunity afforded. 

The  World's  Fair  was  the  greatest  in- 
dustrial exhibition  that  the  world  had  ever 
witnessed.  John  R.  Murdock  passed  through 
its  buildings  and  witnessed  there  the  achieve- 
ments in  science,  art,  and  inventions.  He 
was  impressed  by  the  wonderful  changes  that 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  185 

had  taken  place  since  his  boyhood  days  when 
he  himself  was  a  humble  and  despised  citizen 
of  Illinois.  The  contrast  to  his  mind  was  strik- 
ing. The  marvelous  and  the  wonderful  changes 
were  so  great  as  to  be  miraculous  to  him'. 

He  himself,  however,  was  not  without  his 
honorable  place  in  the  march  of  modern  civ- 
ilization ;  he  was  a  pioneer  to  the  new  and  un- 
developed West.  Within  his  own  life  there 
was  a  wonderful  story  of  change  and  progress. 
What  he  himself  had  witnessed  within  his  life- 
time was  a  most  remarkable  transformation  in 
the  life,  opportunities,  and  achievements  of 
men.  Few  men  were  in  a  better  position  to  ap- 
preciate that  great  exposition  than  he  was.  He 
mentions,  too,  with  pride  the  satisfaction  he 
felt  in  the  distinguished  place  occupied  at  the 
World's  Fair  by  the  great  Tabernacle  choir. 

As  the  vision  of  this  remarkable  progress 
crowded  upon  his  mind,  he  became  reminiscent ; 
he  remembered  the  beginnings  of  his  own  life 
and  longed  to  visit  the  places  where  he  had 
passed  his  childhood.  After  his  stay  at  the 
Fair  he  visited  his  birth-place  in  Orange  town- 
ship, Cuyahoga  County,  Ohio.  In  the  well- 
kept  cemetery  there,  his  mother  had  been  laid 


186  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

away  in  his  early  childhood.  He  was  told  that 
she  was  the  first  person  to  occupy  a  grave  in 
that  city  of  the  dead. 

Orange  township  is  about  fifteen  miles  east 
of  Cleveland.  While  in  that  neighborhood  he 
also  visited  the  tow^n  of  Mentor,  which  is 
about  six  miles  west  of  Painesville.  Mentor 
was  the  home  of  his  mother's  family.  While 
there  he  listened  to  an  address  by  Governor 
McKinley,  a  governor  who  subsequently  be- 
came president.  It  evidently  made  a  most 
favorable  impression  upon  him.  He  refers  to 
President  McKinley  as  an  impressive  and  in- 
spiring speaker.  During  the  upheaval  in 
Utah  over  the  silver  question,  John  R.  Mur- 
dock  stood  firmly  in  1896  for  President  Mc- 
Kinley and  his  policy. 

From  Ohio  he  returned  to  Chicago,  where 
he  visited  the  principal  places  of  interest.  Its 
great  mercantile  houses  interested  him  and 
the  stock  yards  excited  his  wonder.  His  trav- 
els abroad  were  in  striking  contrast  with  his 
travels  during  his  frontier  life.  He  had  both 
the  means  and  the  inclination  to  enjoy  such 
a  tour.  He  returned  to  his  home  in 
October  of  that  vear. 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  187 

The  last  years  of  John  R.  Murdock's  life 
were  characterized  by  strong  political  color- 
ing. When  the  people  of  Utah  divided  upon 
national  party  lines  he  cast  his  lot  with  the 
Republicans.  In  the  fall  of  1894  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  delegate  from  Utah  to  the  national 
Republican  league  which  met  that  year  in 
Denver,    Colorado. 

About  that  time  his  life  was  tinged  with 
sadness  through  the  death  of  his  oldest  son, 
familiarly  known  as  "J^^^^y*'  -^^  ^^^ 
died  at  McCammon,  Idaho,  while  on  his  way 
from  that  place  to  his  father's  home  in  Beaver. 

The  division  of  party  lines  created  consider- 
able excitement  throughout  the  territory.  It 
was  a  newly  found  occupation  to  many  of 
Utah's  prominent  men.  The  political  excite- 
ment of  those  times  pointed  to  the  early  ad- 
mission of  Utah  as  a  state.  Fraternal  good 
feeling  was  quite  universally  manifested.  Con- 
gress passed  an  enabling  act,  calling  for  a  con- 
stitutional convention,  which  met  in  Salt  Lake 
City  on  the  4th  of  March,  1895.  To  this  con- 
vention he  was  elected  a  delegate  and  was 
made  chairman  of  the  water  and  irrigation 
committee.    He  was  also  a,  strong  advocate  of 


188  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

woman's  suffrage.  He  took  a  general  interest 
in  all  those  constitutional  provisions  which 
safe-guarded  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Utah. 

In  November  of  that  year,  when  the  first  of- 
ficers were  elected,  the  state  went  Republican. 
Men  of  all  classes,  without  respect  to  religious 
dififerences  were  elected  to  office.  The  advent, 
therefore,  of  Utah  to  statehood  was  an  im- 
portant milestone  in  the  history  of  his  life  in 
Utah. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  in  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
first  Republican  convention  was  held.  John  R. 
Murdock  was  a  delegate  and  became  its  first 
chaplain.  John  E.  Dooly  was  chairman,  and 
Julia  Farnsworth,  subsequently  Julia  Lund,  a 
granddaughter  of  President  Murdock,  was  sec- 
retary. 

The  year  1897  was  a  jubilee  in  the  history 
of  the  Utah  pioneers.  It  was  fifty  years  since 
the  Mormon  leaders  had  first  entered  the  val- 
ley of  Great  Salt  Lake.  It  was,  therefore,  fit- 
ting that  a  celebration  in  honor  of  those  vet- 
erans be  held.  It  was  a  joyous  occasion.  All 
classes  took  part  in  the  celebration.  To  wear 
the  pioneer's  badge  on  the  24th  of  July,  1897, 
was  a  rare  distinction  bestowed  upon  those 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  189 

entitled  to  the  honor.  Among  them'  was  John 
R.  Murdock,  a  member  of  the  Mormon  Bat- 
talion, whose  hardships  exceeded  even  those 
of  the  pioneers.  The  legislature  had  appropri- 
ated to  each  county  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars  with  which  to  prepare  some  ap- 
propriate display  in  the  parade  on  the  24th. 
President  Murdock  was  made  an  agent  for  the 
expenditure  of  this  fund  for  Beaver  county, 
and  prepared  a  sulphur  grotto  float,  which 
was  indeed  a  unique  display.  His  daughter 
Almira  was  chosen  as  Beaver  county's  queen 
on  that  occasion. 

In  the  parade  he  was  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  survivors  of  the  Mormon  Bat- 
talion, about  thirty-five  in  number,  a  distinction 
which  he  truly  merited,  not  only  as  a  part  of 
the  organization,  but  because  of  his  conspicu- 
ous and  prominent  part  in  the  pioneer  life  of 
Utah.  To  him  it  was  a  great  day.  Between 
that  day  and  the  day  when  he  was  marshaled 
into  the  service  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri 
river  there  lay  fifty  years  of  remarkable  vicis- 
situdes and  experiences.  No  wonder  his  heart 
was  touched.  He  never  dreamed  of  such  hon- 
ors during  all  the  years  in  which  he  was  win- 


190  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

ning  a  title  to  them.  No  wonder  he  said, 
"When  I  saw  those  venerable  survivors  of  the 
Mormon  Battalion  and  the  Utah  pioneers  the 
tears  would  come  to  my  eyes.  The  scene  was 
indeed  sublime  and  pathetic.'' 

As  time  went  on,  the  political  affairs  of  Utah 
became  more  interesting.  The  political  major- 
ities of  the  Republican  party  were  swept  away 
by  the  free  silver  excitement.  Utah  cast  an 
overwhelming  vote  for  Mr.  Bryan.  However, 
in  the  fall  of  1898  John  R.  Murdock  was  nom- 
inated by  acclamation  as  a  representative  to 
the  state  legislature.  He  at  first  declined  the 
honor  of  the  nomination,  but  finally  yielded  to 
the  persuasion  of  his  friends,  who  were  not 
mistaken  about  the  loyalty  of  the  people  of 
Beaver  county  to  him  and  the  support  he 
would  receive  from  them.  Though  the  county 
had  always  been  Democratic  he  was  neverthe- 
less elected,  November  8th,  to  the  third  state 
legislature.  He  was  the  senior  of  the  house. 
He  belonged  during  the  session  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  that  year  to  a  frail  Republican  minority. 
He  v/itnessed  the  exciting  scenes  in  the  bitter 
contest  for  the  election  of  a  United  States  sen- 
ator ;  and  in  that  body  of  men  who  were  exhib- 


THE  EVENING  OF  LIFE  191 

iting  the  greatest  factional  enmity,  he  became 
a  peacemaker.  A  man  of  naturally  generous  in- 
stincts, his  influence  was  persuasive  upon  oth- 
ers. He  did  much  to  mitigate  animosities  that 
had  been  almost  unbearable. 

During  those  experiences,  however,  he 
formed  new  friendships  which  became  to  him 
a  source  of  satisfaction  in  subsequent  years. 

His  political  influence  was  no  greater  than 
his  interest  in  those  conventions  which  were 
called  to  promote  the  material  welfare  of  the 
West.  He  was  a  member  of  the  irrigation  con- 
gress at  Missoula,  Montana,  in  September, 
1899 ;  and  in  1900  he  was  a  member  of  the  con- 
vention that  nominated  James  T.  Hammond 
as  a  representative  to  congress.  Though  ad- 
vanced in  years,  his  manly  form  became  con- 
spicuous in  political  assemblies  and  various 
conventions  of  the  people.  His  interests  had 
grown  far  beyond  the  stake  over  which  he 
formerly  presided.  He  took  a  special  in- 
terest in  the  proposed  projects  for  the  irriga- 
tion of  the  great  West.  His  extensive  travels 
over  the  western  deserts  gave  to  him  a  sympa- 
thetic interest  in  whatever  gave  promise  of 
their  reclamation. 


192  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCIC 

In  speaking  of  his  family  attachments,  he  re 
fers  to  the  return  to  Utah  of  his  brother  Or- 
rice,  who  had  been  with  him  in  the  Mormon 
Battalion.  "This  brother,*'  he  says,  "remained 
in  California  until  the  year  1848,  when  he  came 
to  Utah.  Here  he  married,  but  upon  the  death 
of  his  wife  he  married  a  second  time  and  went 
back  to  Iowa,  where  he  remained  for  a  season. 
Later  he  went  to  Nebraska,  where  his  second 
wife  died  and  he  returned  to  Utah  in  1896. 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  193 

CHAPTER  X 

CHARACTER  SKETCH 

A  mother's  love  throughout  a  man's  Hfe  is 
always  tender  and  solacing.  In  moments  of 
depression,  in  hours  of  disappointment,  and  in 
the  trying  ordeals  of  this  world,  especially  in 
bodily  infirmities,  it  is  indeed  one  of  the  surest 
anchors  to  a  man's  hope  and  joy.  In  childhood 
it  is  all  but  indispensable  to  the  clinging  nature 
and  loving  regard  of  a  boy.  Those  who  have 
felt  a  mother's  tenderness  and  love  throughout 
their  youth  wonder  as  they  look  back  in  life 
how  they  could  have  been  happy  without  it. 
There  is  always  something  wanting  in  a  man's 
life  when  he  is  deprived  of  that  fond  sympathy 
and  loving  care.  Their  loss  constitutes  a  void 
which  nothing  else  can  fill.  John  R.  Murdock 
was  thrown  out  upon  the  world  at  a  time  of  life 
when  his  earliest  recollections  merely  called  to 
mind  the  fact  that  he  once  had  a  mother,  but 
her  tender  care  and  loving  fondness  never  came 
within  any  lasting  memories.  He  was  a  mother- 
less boy  and  was  left  to  the  care  and  mercy  of 
13 


194  JOUS  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

strangers.  Such  a  loss,  however,  is  not  with- 
out its  compensation.  If  he  had  to  win  his  way 
in  the  world  upon  the  merit  of  his  industry  and 
patience,  he  also  learned  in  life  that  if  he  were 
to  enjoy  the  love  of  others  he  must  win  it. 
Life,  therefore,  with  him  from  the  beginning 
was  one  of  conquest.  From  childhood,  his 
life  was  a  struggle  for  material,  spiritual,  and 
social  betterment,  and  he  therefore  realized  how 
he  came  by  every  confidence,  every  friendship, 
and  every  heart-felt  devotion  that  made  life 
joyful  to  him.  Throughout  all  the  years  of 
his  manhood  he  esteemed  the  friendships  of 
life  as  the  most  valuable  assets  that  he  acquired 
in  his  associations  with  others.  If  there  is  any 
one  thing  in  the  life  of  John  R.  Murdock  more 
characteristic  than  another,  it  is  the  deep-seated 
love  and  confidence  which  he  always  mani- 
fested for  his  friends.  That  a  worthy  man, 
tried  and  true,  was  his  friend  was  more  to  him 
than  a  passing  circumstance.  Speaking  of 
those  he  knew,  especially  in  trying  ordeals  of 
earlier  days,  he  is  wont  to  say,  "He  is  my 
friend." 

Nor  was  his  sense  of  appreciation  for  the 
friendship  of  others  any  greater  than  the  de- 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  195 

votion  which  he  always  manifested  toward 
those  who  won  and  enjoyed  his  confidence  and 
love.  His  feelings  were  intense.  With  him 
there  was  nothing  too  good  in  this  world  for 
those  he  esteemed  as  his  friends.  His  friend- 
ship was  always  sincere  and  heartfelt.  Who, 
that  has  seen  him  meet  an  old-time  companion 
with  whom  he  had  been  closely  associated  in 
life,  that  has  not  noticed  the  light  of  an  inward 
and  supreme  satisfaction  beam  in  his  eyes,  and 
joy  radiate  from  his  whole  being.  The  recol- 
lections, therefore,  of  those  personal  associa- 
tions and  friendly  ties  cheered  him  on  his  way 
wherever  his  lot  was  cast  among  men. 

xA^nother  and  peculiar  characteristic  of  the 
man  was  his  native  industry  and  untiring  zeal. 
What  he  put  his  hands  to  do  he  did  with  all  his 
heart.  There  was  about  him  an  inspiring  en- 
thusiasm" which  was  alw^ays  refreshing  and  en- 
couraging. In  early  life  he  had  to  do  things 
whether  they  were  difficult  or  not,  whether  they 
were  agreeable  or  disagreeable,  tasteful  or  dis- 
tasteful. He  learned,  therefore,  to  apply  his 
will  power  to  every  task  that  beset  him,  nor 
had  his  tasks  been  easy  ones.  If  there  were 
difficult  places  to  be  filled,  if  a  man  was  wanted 


196  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

whose  courage  rarely  or  never  failed  him,  John 
R.  Murdock  was  sought  after  whenever  he 
was  available.  From  the  habit  of  conquering 
unusual  and  difficult  tasks  in  early  life,  things 
that  looked  hard  to  others  were  easy  to  him; 
and  when  he  knew,  therefore,  a  thing  could  be 
done  he  was  not  easily  turned  from  the  under- 
taking. What  made  him  helpful  to  so  many 
of  his  fellow-men  was  the  fact  that  hav- 
ing learned  what  he  himself  could  do,  he  also 
learned  what  others  could  do  for  themselves 
if  they  would  only  venture.  From  the  habit  of 
doing  things  he  became  deviceful,  ingenious, 
and  had  at  his  command  all  sorts  of  contriv- 
ances for  getting  on  in  the  world. 

Throughout  southern  Utah  the  name  of 
John  R.  Murdock  is  a  household  word  to 
thousands;  his  prominent  position  in  the 
Church  and  his  -services  in  political  life  made 
him  conspicuous  to  the  public  eye.  All  those 
days  of  his  public  life  he  deported  himself  in 
a  modest  and  becoming  manner.  While  he  was 
unassuming,  he  always  possessed  sufficient  dig- 
nity to  command  the  respect  of  those  with  whom 
he  was  associated.  He  was  a  leader  in  the 
highest  and  best  sense  of  the  term.    In  teach- 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  197 

ing  others  the  work  and  the  duties  of  a  pioneer, 
he  could  point  to  a  model  record  of  his  own 
pioneer  days.  When  teaching  others  whatever 
was  necessary  to  do,  he  first  did  it  himself, 
and  did  it  well.  He  was  more  a  man  of  action 
than  a  man  of  words.  The  experiences  of  his 
early  life  taught  him'  prudence,  and  the  diffi- 
culties and  triumphs  of  his  early  manhood  gave 
him  wisdom'.  Perhaps  no  higher  compliment 
could  be  paid  to  his  consistent,  well-balanced 
life  than  to  say  that  he  was  always  a  safe  man. 
Throughout  all  his  history  he  is  found  on  the 
safe  side  of  every  question.  He  was  not  car- 
ried away  by  excitement ;  for  he  was  cool  and 
deliberative.  He  was  not  easily  deceived,  for 
he  alw^ays  possessed  a  conscientious  regard  for 
the  truth.  By  nature  he  was  free,  frank,  and 
open. 

To  the  everlasting  honor  and  credit  of  John 
R.  Murdock,  it  may  be  truly  said  of  him,  that 
he  was  a  model  ex-Stake  President.  When  he 
lay  down  voluntarily,  and  from  his  own  high 
sense  of  duty,  the  conspicuous  office  which  he 
held  for  so  many  years  of  his  life,  he  must 
have  realized  that  he  surrendered  an  honor 
which  he,  like  other  conscientious  men,  must 


198  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

have  highly  esteemed.  From  the  day  he  stepped 
out  of  that  office  he  never  manifested  the  least 
sentiment  of  dissatisfaction,  discontent,  or 
envy.  His  soul  never  soured,  no  jealousy  actu- 
ated him;  he  was  just  as  devoted,  loyal,  and 
true  in  the  humble  walks  of  life  as  he  had  been 
while  clothed  with  the  dignities  of  a  high  and 
important  office.  He  never  descended  to  things 
that  were  unbecoming  and  undignified  in  one 
who  had  enjoyed  distinguished  honors.  He 
was  just  as  loyal  to  his  new  president  as  any 
other  man  had  ever  been  to  him.  He  never  be- 
littled his  former  office  or  calling.  There  are 
always  misgivings  about  those  who  surrender 
authority  and  the  dignities  of  a  high  office.  Few 
men  who  stand  high  in  command  in  life  main- 
tain their  zeal  when  in  the  ranks.  It  is  hard 
for  most  men  in  such  circumstances  to  forget 
what  they  have  been  and  become  so  wedded  to 
principle  that  its  triumph  is  of  more  conse- 
quence to  them  than  their  own  personal  ambi- 
tion, or  the  honors  of  the  world;  and  when 
President  Murdock  determined  to  ask  that  the 
duties  and  honors  of  his  office  be  conferred 
upon  others,  he  did  so  in  the  sincerest  convic- 
tion that  it  was  in  the  interest,  first  of  all  to 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  199 

the  Church,  and  secondly  to  his  own  personal 
well-being.  The  step  he  never  regretted,  and 
the  influence  of  his  life  was  as  conspicuous  in 
his  retirement  as  it  had  been  in  his  ministra- 
tions. What  has  been  said  may  here  be  re- 
peated  "John  R  Mug^j^^^^^el  ex- 
Stake  President.  •^^'sb.^ 

That  which  made  the  life  of  John  R.  Mur- 
dock  both  interesting  and  inspiring  through- 
out a  long  and  consistent  career  was  the  en- 
thusiasm which  he  brought  to  every  task,  and 
an  accompanying  ambition  that  never  forsook 
him  from  the  period  covered  between  fire  of 
youth  and  the  calm  of  old  age.  Enthusiasm 
and  ambition  frequently  manifest  themselves  in 
youth.  Their  chief  value,  however,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  will  power  sufficiently  strong  to 
make  the  dreams  of  youth  a  reality  in  after  life. 
Those  who  know  the  man  will  readily  testify 
that  his  enthusiasm  never  waned,  that  there 
were  behind  him  ambitions  that  were  con- 
stantly urging  him  to  a  better  and  higher  life. 

But  even  enthusiasm  and  ambition  and  will 
power  are  of  little  value  to  a  man  that  does 
not  sincerely  and  earnestly  work.  John  R. 
Murdock  was  never,  throughout  a  long  and 


200  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

distinguished  career,  an  idle  man.  In  youth 
there  was  about  him  a  physical  prowess  that 
enabled  him  to  do  extraordinary  things  and 
accomplish  unusual  tasks.  All  through  life, 
even  after  the  blessings  of  material  well-being 
came  to  him,  he  was  the  same  industrious  man 
that  he  had  been  in  youth  and  upon  the  plains. 

In  old  age,  when  his  physical  powers  were 
yielding  to  the  decrees  of  Father  Time,  his 
mind  was  occupied  in  the  companionship  of 
good  books.  Knowledge  always  interested  and 
delighted  him ;  and  when  the  struggles  of  early 
life  gave  way  to  the  opportunities  of  intellec- 
tual pursuits,  he  manifested  an  uncommon 
pleasure  in  the  intellectual  acquirements  of 
men  and  the  progress  of  human  life.  With  a 
God-given  intellect  which  it  had  been  his  good 
fortune  in  life  to  enjoy,  it  is  not  easy  to  say 
what  his  station  in  the  world  would  have  been 
had  he  been  born  in  a  scholastic  atmosphere, 
and  had  he  been  allowed  to  enjoy  from  his 
youth  the  advantages  of  good  schools. 

The  writer,  having  known  President  Mur- 
dock  for  many  years,  confesses  some  surprise 
at  the  achievements  of  the  man,  not  having 
known  his  earlier  record.    A  closer  study  into 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  201 

his  life  and  character  reveals  the  fact  that  John 
R.  Murdock  was  a  man  highly  endowed,  and 
a  man  who  put  to  most  excellent  service  the 
talents  and  extraordinary  powers  which  a  kind 
and  benevolent  Creator  had  placed  at  his  com- 
mand. This  eulogy  upon  the  life  of  the  man  is 
far  in  excess  of  that  which  the  writer  believed 
he  could  justly  give  when  he  began  the  task  of 
this  biography.  Little  by  little  and  with  ever- 
increasing  conviction  there  has  grown  upon  the 
writer  an  enthusiastic  admiration  for  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch,  and  what  he  has  written  has 
been  the  result  largely  of  a  more  familiar 
knowledge  of  the  man  which  the  study  of  his 
career  has  given. 

Fearing  that  this  eulogy  might  appear  to  be 
a  highly  colored  panegyric  on  the  life  of  John 
R.  Murdock,  the  writer  has  sought  the  opinions 
of  others,  one  of  which  is  hereby  given  by  a 
man  whose  knowledge  of  men  in  general,  and 
of  John  R.  Murdock  in  particular,  qualifies  him 
to  speak  as  one  having  authority. 

"Are  you  well  acquainted  with  John  R.  Mur- 
dock?" asked  the  writer,  of  President  Francis 
M.  Lyman. 

"Yes,  indeed,*'  was  the  reply.  "I  have  known 
him  nearly  all  my  life," 


202  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

"What,  in  your  judgment/'  further  queried 
the  writer,  "were  the  most  striking  character- 
istics of  the  man  V 

"The  most  remarkable  thing  about  John  R. 
Murdock,''  he  continued,  "was  his  unyielding, 
his  undying  faith  in  the  prophetic  mission  of 
Joseph  Smith.  He  is  naturally  a  great  student, 
and  in  late  years  has  been  an  indefatigable 
reader.  You  will  find  him  well  versed  in  an- 
cient history  and  familiar  with  the  history  of 
his  own  country,  especially  that  of  the  early 
patriots.  When  he  went  on  his  mission  some 
years  ago  to  the  Southern  States,  he  learned 
perhaps,  what  he  never  knew  before,  the  real 
value  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  He  became  a 
close  student  of  the  book  and  an  enthusiastic 
advocate  of  its  teachings.*' 

"President  Murdock  always  possessed  most 
excellent  business  qualifications,  and  so  far  as 
I  know,  all  his  accummulations  of  wealth  were 
brought  about  in  the  most  honorable  manner. 
He  has  always  attended  carefully  to  the  details 
of  his  business,  and  has  been  a  hard  worker  as 
well  as  an  industrious  student.  He  has  al- 
ways been  a  good  judge  of  men,  and  when  on 
the  plains  he  had  a  happy  faculty  of  getting 
along  well  with  the  emigrants  and  looking  af- 


CHARACTER  SKETCH  203 

ter  their  comfort  and  safety.  He  was  also  an 
excellent  judge  of  animals,  and  I  have  heard  it 
said  of  him  that  in  those  days  of  the  ox-team 
emigration  he  knew  every  ox  and  where  every 
ox  belonged  with  respect  to  the  wagon  to 
which  it  was  hitched  and  with  respect  to  the 
team  in  which  it  worked.  From  what  I  can 
learn,  John  R.  Murdock  was  perhaps  the  great- 
est of  all  the  captains  that  conducted  emigrant 
companies  across  the  plains. 

"As  a  stake  president  he  always  gave  satis- 
faction and  it  was  some  time  before  the  pres- 
idency would  consent  to  his  release.  He  has 
sustained  himself  well  throughout  life,  and  is 
not  only  a  man  of  affairs  but  is  really  quite  a 
philosopher.  After  he  was  released  from  his 
duties  as  president  of  the  Beaver  Stake,  he 
never  sulked,  never  got  into  a  corner,  but  stood 
right  at  his  president's  side  and  was  helpful 
to  him  in  every  possible  manner.  We  have 
always  taken  him  into  our  private  counsels 
whenever  we  visited  Beaver  and  had  business 
of  any  importance  to  transact.  I  consider  his 
conduct  as  an  ex-president  most  commendable. 
Of  course,  there  are  those  who  have  criticized 
him.     No  man  who  has  b^^n  as  prominent 


204  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

among  his  fellow  men  as  he  has  been  can  hope 
to  escape  criticism." 

The  author  of  the  foregoing  statement  may 
be  a  little  surprised  to  find  it  in  print,  but  it 
was  given  in  such  a  free,  frank,  and  sincere 
manner  that  the  writer  has  taken  the  liberty 
to  quote  the  remarks  as  accurately  as  possible 
and  immediately  after  they  were  uttered. 

A  study  of  the  life  and  character  of  John  R. 
Murdock  has  revealed  the  fact  that  many  a 
man  lives  comparatively  unknown  to  the  world 
and  unappreciated  simply  because  his  life  of 
extraordinary  usefulness  and  great  accom- 
plishments has  not  been  recorded  on  the  pages 
of  history. 

At  the  time  of  this  writing,  Jan.  1,  1999,  he 
lives  in  Beaver  City  at  the  venerable  age  of 
eighty-two  years.  The  vision  of  his  mind  car- 
ries him  back  over  almost  the  entire  history  of 
the  Church.  With  its  leading  men  and  its  great 
events  he  has  been  closely  associated.  He, 
too,  has  learned  the  value  of  a  well-spent  and 
useful  life. 

Joseph  M.  Tanner. 


Family  of  John  Riggs  Murdock. 

FIRST  FAMILY. 

John  Riggs  Murdock,born  September  13,1826. 
Wife,   Almira   H.   Lott,   born   December   15, 

1829;  married.  November  13,  1849;  died 

December  16,  1878. 
His  children  by  her  are  as  follows : 

John  C.  Murdock,  born     December    17, 
1850. 

Julia  P.  Murdock,  born  December  23,  1852. 

Orrin  P.  Murdock,  born  April  22,  1855 ; 
died  September  8,  1863. 

William  S.  Murdock,  born  September  15, 
1857;  died  October  15,  1857. 

Joseph  R.  Murdock,  born  May  19,  1860. 

George  C.  Murdock,  born  July  6,  1862. 

Orrice  C.  Murdock,  born  August  31,  1866. 

Benjamin  Murdock,  stillborn  1869. 

SECOND  FAMILY. 

Wife,  Mary  Ellen  Wolfenden,  born  November 
12,  1842;  married  January  10,  1863. 


206  JOHN  RIGGS  MURDOCK 

His  children  by  her  are  as  follows : 

Charles  E.  Murdock,  born  December  12, 

1864. 
Sarah  A.   Murdock,  born   November   12, 

1866;  died  July  27,  1867. 
Mary  I.  Murdock,  born  May  18,   1866; 

died  August  27,  1869. 
Lillie   M.   Murdock,   born   July  9,    1870, 

died  Febuary  25,  1884. 
Phoebe  J.  Murdock,     born    March     11, 

1873 ;  died  December  27,  1874. 
Abraham  E.   Murdock,  born  October  6, 

1875 ;  died  June  6,  1876. 
Albert  P.  Murdock,  (twin)  born  April  1, 

1877;  died  May  7,  1877. 
Arthur  W.  Murdock,  (twin)  born  April  1, 

1877;  died  May  10,  1877. 
Almirah  H.  Murdock,  born  January  IS, 

1879. 
John  R.  Murdock,  Jr.,  born  July  30,  1883. 

THIRD   FAMILY. 

Wife,  May  Bain,  born  October  25,  1833 ;  mar- 
ried December  10,  1863. 
Alexander  Murdock,  stillborn,  December,  1866. 


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